The antigenic activity of chromatographic fractions of a saline extract of Taenia saginata (Goeze, 1782) proglottides

A saline extract of a homogenate of Taenia saginata proglottides was partially purified by gel filtration chromatography on Sephadex G200 or Sepharose 4B and by ion exchange chromatography on DEAE cellulose. Gel filtration produced two distinct fractions with different antigenic properties. The first was of molecular weight of approximately 1,000,000 and contained a high level of activity in the haemagglutination inhibition test. The second fraction of molecular weigh of approximately 100,000 contained most of the immuno-precipitin activity. Other fractions had little or no antigenic activity. Eight fractions were obtained by DEAE cellulose chromatography, of which 4 had detectable antigenic activity. Subsequent rechromatography of fractions obtained by gel filtration on DEAE cellulose produced relatively pure fractions of high antigenic activity, from which small molecular weight contaminants had been removed.