| Abstract | Our laboratory has developed a two-step, direct radioimmunoassay for detecting and studying Australia antigen. We wish to report the nature of the test and some of the results that we have found upon analyzing blood specimens from hepatitis patients and normal blood donors. The two-step, dirct radioimmune assay is adapahlte to antigens with multiple determinents. Therefore, let us first consider the nature of the Australia antigen. It is found in human blood and is associated with an agent that will produce the clinical disease of serum hepatitis when an antigen positive blood is infused into a recipient. The antigen was discovered in the early 1960's by Dr. Barry Blumberg of Philadelphia. In his studies, at that time, he was seeking antigens which would react with antibodies formed in the blood of mutliply transfused hemophiliac patients. He found that multiply transfused patients developed antibodies against serum beta lipoproteins. In further studies on the variations of lipoproteins, Blumberg discovered an antigen in the serum of an Australia aborigine that was not a lipoprotein, but still reacted strongly with the serum of a multiply transfused hemophiliac. He called this new antigen Australia antigen. |
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