Interaction of hepatitis B surface antigen (Australia antigen) with membrane vesicles of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

A lysogenic strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was cultured from the dialysis fluid of a patient on chronic hemodialysis treatment whose blood contained hepatitis B surface antigen (HB8Ag). When this bacterium was incubated for 4 to 7 days with serum containing HB8Ag or with purified HB8Ag, a loss of the HB8Ag-specific immunological reactivity was observed. Bacteriophages can be induced from the isolated P. aeruginosa with mitomycin C; the phages, after purification on CsCl gradients, also lyse P. aeruginosa strain 25102 (ATCC). Subsequent to gradient centrifugation of the lysate, a fraction was found with a density around 1.40 g/ml that inactivated HB8Ag after a 4-h incubation at 37 C as determined by counterelectrophoresis and hemagglutination inhibition. The activity was not found in appreciable amounts in other gradient fractions. The electron microscope shows that the active fraction contains envelope vesicles of 45 to 60 nm in diameter. In spite of their loss in HB8Ag activity, the HB8Ag particles (22nm) appeared morphologically intact. These findings suggest that an enzyme(s) is present in the vesicle fraction which inactivates antigenic determinants on HB8Ag particles. Thus, the presence of these bacteria in environments such as feces, dialysis tanks, and contaminated drinking water may prevent the detection of HB8Ag.