Lipophosphoglycan is present in distinctly different form in different Entamoeba histolytica strains and absent in Entamoeba moshkovskii and Entamoeba invadens.

Lipophosphoglycan has recently been demonstrated on the cell surface of Entamoeba histolytica strain HM-1:IMSS. A monoclonal antibody against this molecule had failed to react with some other strains of E. histolytica, including the strain Rahman. To determine if a structurally distinct lipophosphoglycan existed in Rahman, [3H]galactose-labeled glycoconjugates were electrophoresed through sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The electrophoretic pattern in Rahman was very different compared to that obtained with strains HM-1:IMSS and 200:NIH. A number of experiments including sensitivity to mild acid, nitrous acid and phosphoinositol-specific phospholipase C suggest that the Rahman glycoconjugate is indeed a lipophosphoglycan-like molecule but distinctly different from that of HM-1:IMSS. Mild acid-treated glycoconjugates from Rahman and HM-1:IMSS revealed the presence of neutral trisaccharides and monosaccharides in Rahman but not in HM-1:IMSS. Human immune sera from amoebiasis patients and a polyclonal antibody against HM-1:IMSS lipophosphoglycan both recognized Rahman glycoconjugate. Thus, while lipophosphoglycan molecules from the two strains share common epitopes, they are clearly distinct from each other. Molecules bearing resemblance to lipophosphoglycan could not be detected in other Entamoeba species, namely Entamoeba invadens and Entamoeba moshkovskii.