A study of yeast surface antigens by agglutination inhibition.

Agglutination inhibition has been compared to quantitative precipitation in an immunochemical study of yeast polysaccharides. Mannans extracted from Candida albicans Groups A and B, C. stellatoidea, C. tropicalis, and Saccharomyces cerecisiae were used as agglutinin inhibiting or precipitating antigens. As a rule agglutinin inhibition was more sensitive than quantitative precipitation but not with every antiserum-polysaccharide combination. Agglutinin-inhibition offers a method whereby the polysaccharide antigen may be studied in situ but not all of the limitations or applications of the procedure have been elucidated.