Title:

Letter from Felix Haurowitz to Michael Heidelberger

Creator:

Haurowitz, Felix, 1896-1987

Recipient:

Heidelberger, Michael

Date:

10 February 1948

Description:

In asking Heidelberger for help in responding to the comments of a reviewer and in ushering the paper under review towards publication, Haurowitz acknowledged the central role Heidelberger played in the field of immunochemistry during the 1930s and 1940s.. The main point is however the assertion of the referee that it is unnecessary to resort to the "subterfuge" of azoproteins. Why? I have read very attentively the papers of your laboratory, quoted by the referee, and other papers of this series, but I really have no idea, what the referee means. Is there any other possibility of determining anti-globulins? The referee might have in mind your paper on thyroglobulin, where you have shown that all of the added antigen is precipitated as long as antibody is in excess, and that antibody can be calculated simply by subtraction of added antigen from total precipitate. But in other papers, on azo-obalbumin, azo-serumalbumin, azo-streptoprotein, you have found that such a calculation is not valid, because a part only of the added antigen is precipitated. Now, there is one thing, which I could not understand, and which might have led the referee to the believe that such a simple calculation is possible in general; that is your similar assumption in other and even in your last papers (e.g. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 67, 585, 1945). In all of these papers you assume that all of the added antigen is precipitated. I have not been able to find any prove for this your opinion and I fear that I must have overlooked some important paper. In an older paper (J. exp. Med. 62, 697, 1935) you mention some of your reasons, among them the uniformity of ovalbumin. Since that time it has been proved that crystalline ovalbumin is not uniform; it is very well understandable, therefore, that a part might remain dissolved. My own experiments have led me to the opinion that not all of the added antigen is precipitated by antibody, even if the latter is in excess. Accordingly I see no other way to determine antibodies than by using labeled antigens, for instance azo-proteins, as shown in my paper. If I am mistaken, please correct me. - The last sentence of the referee's comment is quite incomprehensible to me. If you could guess, what modification is meant, please explain it to me.

Location:

Box: 2. Folder: 3

Rights:

Reproduced with permission of Alice Haurowitz Sievert.

Genre:

Letters (correspondence)

Subject:

Allergy and Immunology and Antigen-Antibody Reactions

Format:

Text

Extent:

2 pages

Relation:

Letter from Michael Heidelberger to Felix Haurowitz, 1948

Language:

English

Legacy ID:

DHBBJG

NLM ID:

101584940X130

Profiles Collection:

The Michael Heidelberger Papers

Shareable Link:

https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584940X130

Story Section:

Antigens and Antibodies: Heidelberger and The Rise of Quantitative Immunochemistry, 1928-1954