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. 1995 Mar;63(3):804–810. doi: 10.1128/iai.63.3.804-810.1995

Guinea pig cellular immune responses to proteins secreted by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

K Hasløv 1, A Andersen 1, S Nagai 1, A Gottschau 1, T Sørensen 1, P Andersen 1
PMCID: PMC173074  PMID: 7868250

Abstract

To study the immunological activity of proteins secreted by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, we carried out comparative studies in guinea pigs infected intravenously with 2.5 x 10(3) CFU of this organism or with 2.5 x 10(4) CFU of Mycobacterium bovis BCG. Groups of infected guinea pigs were skin tested with fractions of secreted proteins covering well-defined narrow-molecular-mass regions, or such fractions were used for lymphocyte stimulation experiments. The lymphocyte stimulation experiments showed that the fraction containing proteins with molecular masses below 10 kDa had a superior stimulating capacity in tuberculous guinea pigs whereas the 24- to 30-kDa fraction gave significantly higher skin reactions in this group compared with BCG-vaccinated guinea pigs. A precise mapping within the region from 23 to 35 kDa by using a combination of narrow overlapping fractions and purified proteins enabled the identification of the 24-kDa antigen MPT64 as a molecule specific for tuberculous infection. Thus, MPT64 is a promising candidate for a specific diagnostic skin test reagent for human tuberculosis.

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Selected References

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