Studies on the denaturation of antibody. IV. The influence of pH and certain other factors on the rate of inactivation of Staphylococcus antitoxin in urea solutions

In previous work on the denaturation of antibody, studies have been made of some of the factors influencing the inactivation of diphtheria antitoxin in urea solutions (1, 2). A quantitative formulation of a simple kinetic theory was found to fit satisfactorily the experimental data and to offer a reasonable explanation of the deviation of the inactivation from simple first order behavior (2). In the present work we have studied the inactivation of Staphylococcus antitoxin, investigating the influence of certain new factors on the rate and course of the over-all reaction, with a view toward gaining further insight into the mechanism of the reactions, and reinvestigating the influence of pH, a factor studied previously with diphtheria antitoxin, in order to test the applicability of the proposed kinetic mechanism to different antibodies