Mills S D, Kuzniar B, Shames B, Kurjanczyk L A, Penner J L
Department of Microbiology, University of Toronto, Banting Institute, Canada.
J Med Microbiol. 1992 Mar;36(3):215-9. doi: 10.1099/00222615-36-3-215.
During the course of a clinical study on patients with campylobacteriosis, three consecutive isolates of Campylobacter jejuni from the same patient were sent for O-serotyping. Marked differences in the specificities of the O antigens of the isolates were observed between the first and third isolates when a passive haemagglutination assay system developed for serotyping C. jejuni was used. Differences in specificity were also demonstrated by immunoblots of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from proteinase K-digested whole cells. The three isolates could not be distinguished either by restriction endonuclease analysis of chromosomal DNA, by gel electrophoresis of whole-cell proteins or by silver-stained LPS gels, thus providing evidence that they were of the same strain and that antigenic variation had occurred in vivo.
