INTERNA TIONAl JOURNAL OF lEPROSY And Other Mycobacterial Diseases

Anti genic analysis of mycobacteria by agar-diffusion, first reported by Parlett and Youmans ( 14 ), has been developed by many investigators ( 15, 16, 22) and applied to serologic identification and classification of mycobacteria. Recently, Fukui et aZ. (10) reported that an antigen of M. Zepraemllrium may be identical with the avian y antigen. However, little is known regardin g the antigenic structure of M. lepl'ae, although several investigations (4 ,_ 11 , 16, 18. 20) have applied immunodjffusion methods to studies of the serology of leprosy. For example, Burrell and Rheins (4) , Pepys et al. (16) and Navalkar et aZ. ( 11 ) observed precipitation patterns in agar gel which indicated cross reactivity between lepromin and mycobacterial antigens. Similar findings were reported by Tuma and Silva (21) and Estrada Parra et aZ. ( 7 ) using antigens obtained from unheated leprosy nodules. Accordingly, there is no doubt that leprosy bacilli have common antigens with other mycobacteria.