[Kinetic study, in the mouse, of anti-chlamydia antibody formation: demonstration of target antigenic molecules]

A kinetic study of chlamydia antibody was performed in the C57BL/6 mouse to demonstrate whether some cell wall polypeptides could be useful in the detection of early infection. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was employed, followed by electrophoretic transfer to nitrocellulose sheets of the polypeptides, separated according to their molecular weights. One polypeptide triplet appeared to be very interesting, that of 66, 65 and 64 Kd. The first two, and particularly the 65-Kd polypeptide, were determinant carriers which provoked an antibody response in the C57BL/6 mouse during an early phase of infection by the two species of chlamydia; the 65-Kd polypeptide reacted only with C. psittaci. The extension of this study to human disease was undertaken and preliminary results are encouraging; polypeptide markers of early infection in the C57BL/6 mouse, and especially that of 65 Kd, were revealed by the tested human sera and provoked the same type of response. A more extensive study in human species, in correlation with clinical observations, is currently being undertaken in our laboratory.