Effect of anticapsular antibodies on neutrophil phagocytosis of Staphylococcus aureus

One of the major virulence factors of Staphylococcus aureus is development of an exopolysaccharide capsule in vivo, which inhibits recognition of antibodies to highly antigenic cell wall by neutrophils. To circumvent this inhibition, an attempt was made to produce anticapsular antibodies. Three cows per group were immunized in midlactation by injections in the area of the supramammary lymph node and intramuscularly and were boosted on d 14, 42, and 70 with three variants of Smith S. aureus: compact, unencapsulated; diffuse, rigid capsule; and diffuse large clearing, exceptionally large flaccid capsule using dextran sulfate as adjuvant. Serum agglutination and ELISA titers of cows immunized with diffuse and diffuse large clearing increased after immunization and after each boost and remained elevated to the end of the experiment at 112 d. Phagocytosis of diffuse and diffuse large clearing, measured by flow cytometry, was enhanced by immunization with either organism. No antibody response to capsule or enhanced phagocytosis of diffuse developed in cows immunized with compact. However, anticompact antibodies were opsonic for diffuse large clearing. These data show that bovine antibodies to S. aureus capsule are opsonic for bovine neutrophils and that capsule plays a role in inhibition of cell-wall opsonization of S. aureus.