Role of Treponema Reiter in modern serology of syphilis.

Wassermann and Ficker (1922) succeeded in isolating seven virulent strains of Treponema pallidum from the serum from eighty to ninety primary chancres. One strain, B:,, was kept and cultivated in an anaerobic fluid medium consisting of diluted horse serum to which a piece of boiled liver was added, and at that time, the strain proved virulent for rabbits after a series of subcultures (Reiter). It appears that this strain was the first to be successfully cultivated. Previously, Noguchi (191 la, b, 1912) had claimed to have been able to isolate and keep T. pallidum, but his findings could not be confirmed. The same fate happened to the discovery of Nakano (1912, 1913) who published several papers in 1913 in which he claimed that he had been able to obtain subcultures. He and Noguchi produced from their cultures the so-called "Luetin" with which they could obtain positive skin reactions in syphilitic patients. In 1922 Reiter infected rabbits with a number of cultivated syphilis strains of which strain B36 was one. In the following years he published a series of papers which were devoted to work on this strain (Reiter, 1924, 1925, 1926a, b, 1929). From that time it has been known as Treponema Reiter. Klopstock (1926) was the first to obtain positive serum reactions in syphilitic patients with a dense alcoholic suspension of this strain. He states clearly in his first paper that this strain came from Ficker and had already been cultivated for some years. In the meantime the strain had completely lost its virulence and it was no longer possible to transmit it successfully to rabbits (Kroo and Schulze, 1929; Plaut and Kassowitz, 1930). Later Gaehtgens (1929, 1937) experimented with the strain and in long systematic investigations he produced a useful antigen called Palligen. This antigen consisted of a concentrated emulsion of purified Treponema Reiter which were suspended in carbolized saline. According to about forty papers published between 1929 and 1949 in Germany and abroad,