Production of monoclonal antibodies against surface antigenic determinants of Klebsiella pneumoniae.

The production of four murine monoclonal antibodies (Kp26, Kp53, Kp62 and Kp71) to Klebsiella pneumoniae surface antigen(s) is described. The binding of all four monoclonal antibodies to K. pneumoniae was inhibited by F(ab')2 fragments of normal human serum IgG, suggesting that the antigenic determinants of K. pneumoniae detected by the four monoclonal antibodies may be similar to those recognized by human serum IgG. The antigen identified by Kp62 was purified from a deoxycholate-solubilized bacterial fraction using immunoaffinity chromatography. The molecular weight of the antigen was determined by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to be 50,000-70,000.