Fluorescent Staining With Labeled Mycoplasma Antigen

Abstract

Cells oblained by primary tissue culture of The spleens, thymuses, and lymph nodes of rabbits immunized with sonically disrupted Mycoplasma hominis, type 2, organisms were stained with a fluorescein-labeled homologous antigen by use of the direct immunofluorescent method. Brilliant staining of the cytoplasm of certain types of cells from immunized animals showed the presence of specific antibody. The cells involved appeared to be those of the lymphocyte-monocyte series, as shown when stained by the May-Grunwald-Giemsa method. Preparations stained by the methyl-green-pyronin technique revealed an increase in the pyroninophilic cells in the preparations from the immunized animals. Specific antibody production was confirmed by demonstrating the presence of small amounts of circulating antibody with an indirect hemagglutination test. Further controls of specificity were made by staining preparations with a labeled sonicated Salmonella typhi antigen.