Studies on streptococcal hyaluronidase and antihyaluronidase.

The uniformity with which high streptococcal (group A) antihyaluronidase titer occurs in rheumatic fever (Quinn, 1950; Harris and Harris, 1949a, 1949b; Harris et al., 1949; Stoppelman, 1951; Friou and Wenner, 1947; and Sallman et al., 1950; 1951) and its reported occurrence in cases of rheumatoid arthritis (Quinn, 1950; Faber, 1953a, 1953b), in glomerulonephritis (Faber, 1953a, 1953b) and scarlet fever (Friou, 1950) suggest the importance of experimental studies on the antigenicity of streptococcal hyaluronidase and its histological localization. Therefore we have undertaken to investigate the development of antibody in rabbits and the histological localization of the injected enzyme in mice using the Coons fluorescent antibody technique (Coons et al., 1941, 1942, 1951; Coons, 1952; Hill et al., 1950; Kaplan et al., 1950). The present report deals with the preparation of partially purified streptococcal (group C) hyaluronidase, its use as an antigen in rabbits and the course of development of antibody.