Serological Reactivity of Hydrolytic Products From Silk

The foregoing experiments show that products of the hydrolysis of silk that consist of peptides having, from amino nitrogen determinations, molecular weights from about 600 to 1000 were capable of inhibiting the reactions of precipitin sera for silk. From the results it may reasonably be inferred that silk fibroin contains determinant structures not larger than the peptides examined, which probably consist of not more than 8 to 12 amino acids. That similar relations may obtain with other proteins is not improbable in view of results previously reported with dialyzable split products.