Saliva, blood group substances from

The saliva of secretors has been used as a source of blood group substances in several investigations. Landsteiner obtained very active material from horse saliva and was able to show that it contained D-galac-tose and a hexosamine. More recently the same author compared the blood group substances from the saliva of individuals of groups A, B and 0 and found that there was very little difference in their properties (see Table III). 

Katzka and Riss extended these rat studies (K9) and found that inhibitory material was present in gastric juice of normals and patients with pernicious anemia and in human saliva, but was absent from normal human serum, hog intrinsic factor concentrate, and purified blood group substance A. Gastric juice fractionation by starch block electrophoresis yielded inhibitory material in the protein fraction remaining at the origin, which was the largest fraction in pernicious anemia gastric juice. 

Complex, blood-group-active substances have been employed as inhibitors of hemagglutination.196,693 Osawa and Matsumoto found692 inhibition of both Ulex lectins by human A-, B-, and H-active substances, whereas Lea substance and porcine, submaxillary mucin bound only to Ulex II. Chuba and coworkers693 reported that substances from porcine stomach (A-active), equine stomach (B-active), and baboon stomach (A-, B-, and O-active substances), as well as human A-, B-, and O-active substances, bound equally well to both U. europeus lectins. However, porcine, submaxillary mucin and nonsecretor saliva inhibited only Ulex II activity. 

Blood-group specific substances have been isolated in amount of about 3 mg. per 100 cc. from the salivas of persons of the A, B, and 0 types (90). So-called nonsecretors excrete a similar polysaccharide which does not give the serological reactions typical of the blood-specific substances. 

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