Evidence for reappearance of Trypanosoma brucei variable antigen types in relapse populations

Seven out of 11 bovines infected with different clones of Trypanosoma brucei showed 2 peaks of antibody activity against the infecting clone within 7 weeks, as measured by immunofluorescence, radioimmunoassay, and neutralization of infectivity tests. Using other clones from an unrelated Stock, antibodies to these clones were not detectable, indicating that the antibodies produced were specific to the infecting organisms. These results suggest that there was a reappearance or increase in numbers of the infecting organisms or of organisms with variable surface antigens similar to those of the infecting clones. The reappearance of variable antigen types in the presence of specific antibodies would imply that antibody plays a selective rather than an inductive role in the process of antigenic variation in African trypanosomes.