The Journal of Experimental Medicine
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The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Vol 115, 977-996, Copyright, 1962, by The Rockefeller Institute

ARTICLE

THE HISTOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE BLOOD GROUP SUBSTANCES IN MAN AS DISCLOSED BY IMMUNOFLUORESCENCE : II. THE H ANTIGEN AND ITS RELATION TO A AND B ANTIGENS



Aron E. Szulman 1

1 From the Departments of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, and the Boston Lying-In Hospital, Boston

The H antigen was mapped out by immunofluorescence in human tissues (including those of fetuses from 15 cm crown-heel length) from individuals of the various groups within the ABO system, both secretors and non-secretors. The distribution of the antigen can be summarized under the following headings:

Cell walls of endothelium: present throughout the cardiovascular system;

Cell walls of stratified epithelia: in skin, non-cornifying squamous stratified membranes, transitional epithelia;

Mucus: occurring wherever the latter is produced in secretor individuals and confined to a few special topographical areas in non-secretors;

Secretions and excretions: the pancreatic and sudoriferous (independent of secretor status), and mammary and uterine (governed by the secretor makeup) all contain it.

The distribution of the H antigen is most fully represented in tissues of group O. It follows an over-all universal pattern, characteristically modified in non-secretors, equally valid for antigens A and B described in a preceding study. Within this pattern, in tissues of the non-O groups, the complement of the H substance in its various forms wanes in a manner consistent with the hypothesis that it serves as a substrate for the A1, A2, B genes, exerting their action with different degrees of efficiency.

The secretor:non-secretor phenomena can be most simply interpreted by viewing the non-secretor, recessive gene (in the homozygous, ss condition) as inhibiting the production of some of the water-soluble forms of the blood group substances. Since the gene was never found responsible for dissociation of the H and A, B antigens its inhibitory action is thought to be wrought at the point of formation of the basic H substance or its precursor.

 Submitted on December 12, 1961


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