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The Journal of Immunology, 1976, 117: 876-881.
Copyright © 1976 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc.
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Hepatitis a Antigen Isolated from Liver and Stool: Immunologic Comparison of Antisera Prepared in Guinea Pigs

Jules L. Dienstag, Alan N. Schulman, Robert J. Gerety, Jay H. Hoofnagle1, Douglas E. Lorenz, Robert H. Purcell2 and Lewellys F. Barker

Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014 and the Division of Blood and Blood Products, Bureau of Biologics, Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Maryland 20014

Abstract

Morphologically similar hepatitis A antigen particles (HA Ag)3 have been detected in the stools of patients with type A hepatitis and in the livers of marmosets experimentally infected with hepatitis A virus. To investigate the humoral antibody responses to these antigens and to compare the immunologic properties of HA Ag from these two sources, we immunized guinea pigs with either marmoset liver-derived HA Ag or with human stool-derived HA Ag in complete Freund's adjuvant and measured their antibody responses by immune electron microscopy (IEM) and immune adherence hemagglutination (IAHA). Antibodies reacting with both hepatitis A antigens were elicited in both groups. As determined by IEM, no distinction was seen between the reaction of guinea pig antiserum to each HA Ag tested under code when reacted against either liver-derived or stool-derived HA Ag. Antibodies elicited to marmoset liver-derived HA Ag and human stool-derived HA Ag had similar end point dilution titers by IAHA when tested against either "light" density (1.34 g/cm3) or "heavy" density (1.40 g/cm3) stool-derived HA Ag or liver-derived HA Ag. Low levels of antibody to normal liver or stool control antigens were observed transiently but did not obscure the specific response to HA Ag. These data suggest that morphologically similar HA Ag particles from different sources and with different densities are immunologically similar and may be identical. In contrast to the heterogeneity of surface antigens of hepatitis B virus, the comparable immunogenicity and apparent antigenic homogeneity of HA Ags derived from various sources may simplify the approach to development of a vaccine against viral hepatitis, type A.

Footnotes

1 Present address: Veterans Administration Hospital, Washington, D. C.

2 To whom reprint requests should be sent at the National Institutes of Health, Building 7, Room 301, Bethesda, Maryland 20014.






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