The Contribution of Polysaccharide Antigens From Clinical spp. and spp. Isolates to the Serological Cross-Reactions.

spp. and spp. cause hospital-acquired urinary tract infections (UTIs), which are often related to the use of catheters. To create a vaccine preventing UTI, immunogenic bacterial antigens with common epitopes are still being looked for. In this work, the role of polysaccharide antigens of four spp. and eight spp. strains in serological cross-reactions with specific antisera was examined. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Western blotting, and silver staining by Tsai method were performed. The and spp. LPSs and cells were used as antigens. Polyclonal rabbit sera specific to 0.023 and 0.062 strains and four spp. LPSs were obtained. The ELISA and Western blotting results showed the strongest cross-reactions occurring between lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) from four strains and O42 antiserum. The silver-staining procedure revealed the patterns typical of both slow- and fast-migrating mass species of the LPSs. The spp. antigens also cross-reacted with four antisera, and most of the reactions were observed as low-migrating patterns. From two antisera obtained in this work, only one, the 0.062 antiserum, cross-reacted with satisfactory strength with LPSs (19, 22, and 60). Obtaining cross-reactions between the antigens of strains and antisera and in the opposite systems is important for proving the immunogenic role of polysaccharide antigens in triggering the immunological response.