Abstract
BCG cells were grown homogeneously in a 1% Tween 80-casamino acid medium by shaking. They were submitted to gentle fractionation procedures by use of a Ribi refrigerated cell fractionator equipped with the French pressure cell and detergents (Triton X-100 and SDS) in order to isolate the cell surface components, cell walls, cell membranes, and cytoplasm. Each of the subcellular structures and components isolated in this manner was found to exhibit characteristic immunological and chemical properties.
The cell-wall fraction obtained by extraction of the cell envelope with detergents was shown to contain an antigen protein the presence, role, and significance of which had been overlooked in the cell walls purified by protease digestion.
