EPITOPE SPECIFICITY OF POLYCLONAL RABBIT ANTISERA AGAINST PROTEUS VULGARIS O-ANTIGENS

B. Bartodziejska^a, A. Torzewska^a, D. Babicka^a, M. Wykrota^a, A. Rozalski^a, A. Perepelov^b, F.V. Toukach^b, Y.A. Knirel^b

^aDepartment of Immunobiology of Bacteria, Institute of Microbiologyand Immunology, University of Lodz, Poland
^bN. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

KEYWORDS: O-specific polysaccharide, O-antigen, bacterial polysaccharide structure, polyclonal antisera, Proteus vulgaris, NMR spectroscopy

chapter in "Genes and proteins underlying microbial urinary tract virulence", eds. L. Emoõdy, T. Pál, J. Hacker, G. Blum-Oehler, Springer, 2002, pp.243-247,
series "Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology", v. 485, online ISBN 978-0-306-46840-7, print ISBN 978-0-306-46455-3

DOI: 10.1007/0-306-46840-9_32

Acidic components, which are characteristic for many Proteus O-specific polysaccharides play an important role in manifesting immunospecificity of three out of four P. vulgaris O-antigens investigated in this paper. It was found that the immunological role of acidic components was determined also by other factors, such as the configuration of the glycosidic linkage and the type of neighbouring sugars. The acidic nature of polysaccharides, which are present on the surface of Proteus strains, is believed to contribute to the formation of stones in urinary tract and to facilitate the migration of swarm cells from these bacteria.

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