It si well-known that the normal sera of fishes possess natural or spontaneous hemolysis functions against various heterologous red blood cells and that this sera factor is heat-labile, while fish sera indicate antibody-dependent hemolysis activities, which are called hemolytic complement activity, against hemolytic antibody (hemolysin)-sensitized red blood cells. Both activies are considered to be significant for the natural and immunological defense mechanism of fishes against the invasion of pathogens and foreign agents. However, reliable experimental ptocedures have not been procured for assessing the activities because the two activities could not be separately evaluated.
Measurement methods for these activities were separately established and hemolysis units were newly defined as SH
50 unit for the spontaneous hemolysis activity and as CH
50 unit for the hemolytic complement activity (MAYER'S CH
50 unint was slightly modified for fish sera).
Normal sera of fishes including twelve species, with the exception of lamprey, demonstrated high SH
50 unit and a uniform SH
50 unit range in each serum against the heterologous red blood cells obtained from goldfish and rainbow trout, but against the homologous red blood cells these did not. In the serum of lamprey, no hemolytic activity was detected against either red blood cells. In the titation of CH
50 unit, the tested sera as fish complements indicated still higher level activities than those of SH
50 unit against the heterologous red blood cell sensitized with the antibody derived from rainbow trout or goldfish. Furthermore, these showed a uniform and peculiar range of CH
50 unit in each species. The complement of lamprey bore no activity as it did in SH
50 unit. Rainbow rout complement was more heat-sensitive than guinea pig complement under various preservced conditions. On the other hand, the complements of mammals, guinea pig, human, rabbit and goat revealed abilities to hemolyse rabbit antibody-bound red blood cells. In the teleost fish complements, an opposite relation was concluded in the interrelation between the sources of complements and antibodies used. It was characterized that the mammalian complements cannot be applied to the complement-mediated immune hemolysis reactions of fishes insofar as the antibodies dervied from teleosts are supplied to these reaction systems and also that teleost fish complements should be appropriated for the complement-mediated immune reactions of teleosts.
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