Cross‐reactions between Mycobacteria

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Abstract
Cross-reactions between Mycobacterium bovis BCG and various other mycobacteria, Nacardia asteroides, Corynebacterium pyogenes and Listeria monocrtogenes were studied by incorporating antibodies against these bacteria in the ineermediate gel of a crossed immuno-electrophoretic system with BCG antigen and anti-BCG antibodies. In the BCG reference system forty-four distinct antigenic components were recorded, of which thirty-three cross-reacted with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, twenty-five with M. avium, twenty-one with A, duvalii, eighteen with M. smegmatis, fifteen with M. nonchromogenicum, twelve with M. phlei, eight with N. asteroides and two wilh C. pyogenes, whereas no cross-reaction was detected with L. monocytogenes. The value of the method for characterization of mycobacterial antigens is discussed. A taxonomic system based on this method appears particularly valuable for studies of non-cultivable mycobacteria such as M. leprae, A majority of twenty-one patients with lepromatous leprosy had anti-BCG antibodies of restricted specificity, affecting only four or live BCG antigens, although one patient had twelve anti-BCG specificities. Most of these antibodies reacted with those BCG antigens that cross-react extensively with other mycobacteria.

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