@article{18063,
  keywords = {Antibodies, Bacterial, Antigens, Bacterial, Corynebacterium, Cross Reactions, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Humans, Immunoelectrophoresis, leprosy, Mycobacterium, Mycobacterium bovis, Mycobacterium leprae, Species Specificity},
  author = {Baelden M C and Bouckaert A E and Grégoire D and Poele M and Coene M},
  title = {Comparison of thermostable macromolecular antigens from leprosy-associated bacteria.},
  abstract = {<p>Three types of bacteria are associated with leprosy: Mycobacterium leprae, leprosy-derived corynebacteria (LDC), and armadillo-derived mycobacteria (ADM). The immunological relationships between these three types of bacteria and Mycobacterium bovis BCG, used as a reference, were determined by cross-immunoelectrophoresis. When compared with the reference, cross-reactions were observed with a variable number of antigens: 2 in the case of strain LDC 15, 4 with M. leprae, and from 1 to 10 in the case of the ADM, depending on their subgroup. Next, thermostable macromolecular antigens (TMAs), the major cross-reactive antigens of leprosy-associated bacteria, were compared by anti-TMA antibody ELISA tests. The LDC TMAs displayed high cross-reactivity between the subgroups and lower cross-reactivity with the TMAs of M. bovis BCG. Evidence for the presence of a species-specific moiety in TMA of the different LDC was obtained by using depleted anti-TMA antisera. Western blot analysis revealed the presence of many proteins in the TMAs of LDC and M. bovis BCG, some of them being species-specific and other cross-reactive.</p>},
  year = {1994},
  journal = {Canadian journal of microbiology},
  volume = {40},
  pages = {508-12},
  month = {1994 Jun},
  issn = {0008-4166},
  doi = {10.1139/m94-083},
  language = {eng},
}