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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, May 1999, p. 1280-1287, Vol. 37, No. 5
Departments of Clinical
Sciences,1 Population Medicine and
Diagnostic Sciences,2 and Biomedical
Sciences,3 College of Veterinary Medicine,
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and Enteric Products
Inc., Stony Brook, New York4
Received 29 September 1998/Returned for modification 17 December
1998/Accepted 25 January 1999
Characterization of the humoral immune responses of people to
Helicobacter pylori infection has facilitated the
investigation of the host response to bacterial virulence factors and
the development of sensitive and specific diagnostic tests. Dogs are
commonly infected with gastric Helicobacter spp., but the
presence of multiple Helicobacter spp. and possible
coinfection in individual dogs have complicated serological evaluation.
Evaluation of the antigenic homology of Helicobacter spp.
revealed that the major protein bands of Helicobacter felis
and Helicobacter bizzozeronii, two Helicobacter
spp. that infect dogs, were very similar to UreA (29 to 31 kDa), UreB
(63 to 66 kDa), and HSP (58 to 60 kDa) of H. pylori, and
sera from infected and uninfected dogs bound in a similar way to each
antigen. Immunoblotting and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
(ELISA) with H. felis ATCC 49179 antigen were performed
with 101 serum samples (from 78 infected dogs and 23 uninfected dogs).
Samples from uninfected dogs (median = 8) had fewer bands on
immunoblotting than samples from infected dogs (median = 16)
(P < 0.05). Combinations of the presence of any two
of the low-molecular-mass bands (19, 25, 30, 32, and 37 kDa) or the
high-molecular-mass bands (86 and 94 kDa) were found almost solely in
samples from infected dogs (P < 0.0001). Kinetic
ELISA results were significantly higher for samples from infected dogs (median = 0.0802 optical density unit [OD]/min) than for samples from uninfected dogs (median = 0.01428 OD/min). The combination of
ELISA and immunoblotting results gave a specificity of 95.6% and a
sensitivity of 79.8%. No correlation between ELISA results, colonization density, degree of inflammation, and presence of lymphoid
follicles was observed. The results indicate substantial antigenic
homology between H. felis, H. pylori, and
H. bizzozeronii. The combination of ELISA and
immunoblotting was a highly specific and moderately sensitive indicator
of infection. The degree of seropositivity assessed by ELISA was not
related to bacterial colonization density, the degree of gastric
inflammation, or the presence of lymphoid follicles.
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Serological Discrimination of Dogs Infected with
Gastric Helicobacter spp. and Uninfected Dogs
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. Phone: (607) 253-3251. Fax: (607) 253-3271. E-mail:
kws5{at}cornell.edu.
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