Studies of the Mucin-clot Prevention Test for the Determination of the Antihyaluronidase

The presence in human serum of an inhibitory substance which is capable of neutralizing an enzyme elaborated by a strain of hemolytic streptococcus recently has been demonstrated by Friou and Wenner (1). They further showed that the amount of inhibitory substance in sera from patients with rheumatic fever was greater than in sera from patients early in the course of uncomplicated hemolytic streptococcal infections or from normal individuals. These workers (1) employed the mucin-clot prevention test (M.C.P.) described by McClean (2) which was based on the observations of Seastone (3) and Meyer and Palmer (4) that hyaluronic acid mixed with serum protein in the presence of acetic acid gives a characteristic clot. A brief historical background of the work preceding that of Friou and Wenner begins in 1928 with the observation of Duran-Reynals (5, 6) that vaccinal infection of the rabbit was considerably enhanced when the virus was injected into the skin along with an aqueous extract of rabbit, guinea pig or rat testicle. McClean (7) and Hoffman and Duran-Reynals (8, 9) in 1930 described independently the ability of testicular extracts to increase tissue permeability. These extracts were subsequently termed "spreading factors." Extensive studies by Duran-Reynals later showed that spreading factors were present in extracts of certain invasive bacteria (10), poisonous insects and snake venoms (11). Meyer et al. (12) found similar so-called enzymes in autolysates of a rough (R) type II pneumococcus. Enzymes of the same type were subsequently obtained from the bovine ciliary body and iris (13), from certain strains of Group A hemolytic streptococcus and spleen (14, 15), and from Clostridium welchii (10, 16).