Sheep red blood cell membrane structure: an immunological probe.

Pronase digested sheep red blood cell stromata were employed as probe in order to investigate erythrocyte membrane arrangement by immunological way. Antiserum from rabbits immunized with erythrocyte ghost pronase residue assayed for its hemolytic activity against intact sheep red cells, showed an high titer, in a good agreement with the presence in the same residue of externally located membrane antigens. Immunoelectrophoretic analysis was performed between the solubilized residue and precipitins produced by rabbits immunized respectively with the following antigens: intact sheep red blood cells (SRBC), sheep erythrocyte stromata (SRBCS), lipid complex (LC), sphingomyelin complex (SF), stromata after phospholipase A treatment (SPLA), stromata after phospholipase C treatment (SPLC), stromata after phospholipases A and C treatment (SPLAC), and pronase treated stromata (SP). Antigen/antibody reaction with anti-SP antiserum showed an additional precipitation line: this fact is discussed in view of a possible enrichment of the fraction after pronase stromata digestion, and/or enhancement of the immunogenicity.