PREPARATION OF ASPERGILLUS FUMIGATUS ANTIGENS AND THEIR ANALYSIS BY TWO-DIMENSIONAL IMMUNOELECTROPHORESIS

Abstract

Serology is widely used in the study of the involvement of Aspergillus spp. in a variety of pulmonary diseases. Since the introduction of double-diffusion and electrophoretic techniques in agar, soluble antigens have been obtained in one or other of the following ways. A culture is grown for 4-6 weeks and the supernatant fluid is used as a source of antigens (Longbottom and Pepys, 1964). A variant of this is the addition of toluene to a young culture, causing autolysis in 2-3 days (Pappagianis et al., 1961). Another method is the mechanical disruption of young mycelium approximately 3 days old, at the end of the logarithmic phase of growth (Wada, 1960; Azuma et al., 1967; Tran van Ky, Biguet and Vaucelle, 1968; Bardana et al., 1972; Kim and Chaparas, 1978; Hearn and Mackenzie, 1979); this last method has been used here in a search for more specific and reproducible antigens and to investigate the role and the relative immunological importance of the different antigens in the invaded host.