STUDIES ON THE EFFECT OF VARIATION OF CONCENTRATION AND ORIGIN OF LECITHIN (NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC) IN CARDIOLIPIN COMPLEMENT-FIXATION ANTIGEN* BY

The significance of the relationship between the three components of cardiolipin complement-fixation antigen, viz. cardiolipin, natural lecithin, and cholesterol, was first studied by Maltaner and Maltaner (1945) in experiments with syphilitic pooled rabbit or human sera. Suitable sensitivity with regard to the routine sero-diagnosis of syphilis was obtained with the antigen formula: Cardiolipin (C) 1, lecithin (L) 5, and cholesterol (Ch) 17. A C/L ratio of I/1 5 and a Ch/L ratio of 5 or 6/1 appeared to form the upper limits of sensitivity. These results were confirmed by Lundback (1952). Other investigators (Harris and Portnoy, 1944; Kent, Boyd, and Sanders, 1948; Kolmer and Lynch, 1948) arrived at other suitable antigen formulae, an