[Our experience in the preparation and use of group-specific chlamydial antigens]

Described is a modified method for the production of etherial-acetone antigens used in the complement-fixation test (CFT). It is characterized by a two-fold etherial extraction and an electron-microscopic control over the strains and the chlamydial suspensions to be used as initial material. The antigens obtained by the modified method are said to have high titers, stability, and high specific activity, are long-lasting, and do not produce anticomplement reactions. A new method has been worked out for the production of concentrated and purified chlamydial antigens for CFT, employing column chromatography on Sepharose 2B or 4B. The antigens obtained are highly active and specific. Results have shown that the use of the highly purified chlamydial antigens for CFT is very promising.