Effect of 2-mercaptoethanol treatment on anticardiolipin reactivity in sera from syphilitics and false positive reactors.

In a previous paper, Tringali, Del Carpio, and Gismmanco (1966) reported that treatment of sera with 2-Mercaptoethanol (2-ME) caused a disappearance of non-syphilitic anticardiolipin reactivity, usually referred to as T'false positive" (EP) reactivity, as detected in a complement-fixation assay, However, similar treatment did not abolish the reactivity of syphilitic sera in the samie assay. This raised the question of whether or not 2-ME treatment might offer a means of differentiating syphilitic sera from PP reactors. Since only nine sera were used in the initial study and only complement-fixation reactivity was investigated, it seemed of interest to study the lability of anticardiolipin reactivity to 2-ME in a larger number of sera, and to study the effect of 2-ME on reactivity in a flocculation test (Venereal Diseae Research Laboratory [VDRL] slide test), as well as a complement-fixation test (Kolmer one-fifth volume).