[Study on the production, identification of serogroup-specific monoclonal antibodies against leptospires of Australis serogroup and detection of its antigen].

Spleen cells of BALB/c mice immunized with whole Leptospira interrogans serogroup Australis serovar australis strain 620 were fused with myeloma cells line SP2/0. Specificities of four McAbs determined by MAT. 2E1 McAb (IgG3) reacted with 11 serovars, of the Australis serogroup, but did not react with 22 representative serovars of L. interrogans in 20 serogroups, L. biflexa strain patoc I and Leptonema illini strain 3055. 2E1 McAb showed serogroup specificity for Australis by agglutination and the other 3 McAbs showed partial serogroup specificity. We compared the outer envelope (OE) protein profiles of serovar australis strain 620 with those of two pathogenic L. interrogans serovar lai strain 601 and serovar hebdomadis strain 156 by SDS-PAGE. 63kd protein profile was only found in the OE of strain 620, and the quantity of 42kd protein of strain 620 was greater than that of strain 601 and 156. The immunoblotting revealed that 2E1 McAb reacted with a 34kd band in the OE preparation of serovar australis strain 620, but did not react with that of other two L. interrogans. 2E1 McAb also did not react with OE of non-pathogenic leptospires. It was suggested that 34kd protein might contain the antigenic determinants which were shared by leptospires of Australis serogroup.