Studies on Paul--Bunnell (P-B) antigen--antibody system. IV. Unresponsiveness to one of P-B antigens in infectious mononucleosis.
Sera of 198 patients with infectious mononucleosis (IM), which were obtained during the 3rd or 4th week of the disease, were studied for the presence of antibodies to BS and B antigens of the Paul--Bunnell (P-B) antigenic complex. Six of these IM patients had anti-B antibodies without or with very low-titer anti-BS antibodies and the remaining patients had both types of antibodies at high titers. These 6 IM patients would have been misdiagnosed as seronegative if the traditional P-B tests with sheep erythrocytes had been employed. BS antigen was demonstrated in a large amount in chloroform-methanol extracts of peripheral blood buffy coat and of erythrocytes obtained from 1 of the 6 patients during the 3rd week of the disease and right after recovery.
D000293:Adolescent; D000910:Antibodies, Heterophile / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000276:immunology*; D000937:Antigen-Antibody Reactions; D004910:Erythrocyte Membrane / Q000276:immunology; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000276:immunology; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005260:Female; D006386:Hemagglutination Tests; D006801:Humans; D005779:Immunodiffusion; D007244:Infectious Mononucleosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology*
D000910:Antibodies, Heterophile