Premium
Serum antibody specificities to Leishmania aethiopica antigens in patients with localized and diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis
Author(s) -
MENGISTU G.,
AKUFFO H.O.,
YEMANEBERHAN T.,
BRITTON S.,
FEHNIGER T.E.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
parasite immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.795
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1365-3024
pISSN - 0141-9838
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3024.1990.tb00984.x
Subject(s) - antigen , antibody , biology , immunology , cutaneous leishmaniasis , leishmaniasis , leishmania , leishmania major , virology , parasite hosting , computer science , world wide web
Summary In order to characterize the antigenic determinants of Leishmania aethiopica , we have analysed by immunoblotting the antibody reactivity of leishmaniasis patients with either the localized (LCL) or diffuse (DCL) clinical forms of disease. In this study we have compared the reactivity of antibodies from eight LCL and DCL patients to parasites isolated from each individual, or the parasite isolates of the other LCL and DCL patients studied. The immunoblot profiles of antibodies from LCL patients differed from the antibody profiles of DCL patients. Serum antibodies from LCL patients showed limited recognition of somatic antigens of < M r 50000 which were recognized by antibodies present in DCL patients. A direct comparison of individual LCL and DCL patient derived promastigotes determined that the lack of antibody to these antigens in LCL patients was not due to the differential expression of these determinants by the LCL and DCL derived promastigotes. The results of this study suggest that although either LCL or DCL derived promastigotes express a wide variety of antigenic moieties which are potentially reactive with antibodies, only a subset of antibodies against these specificities develop in any individual patient, during active infection.