Isomeric, anti-rhamnose antibodies having specificity for rhamnose-containing, streptococcal heteroglycans.
L-Rhamnose (6-deoxy-L-mannose) is a constituent carbohydrate unit of microbial, immunogenic heteroglycans and lipopolysaccharides, and often functions as the immunodeterminant group of such immunogens. Two types of anti-rhamnose antibody have now been isolated by affinity chromatography of immune sera obtained from rabbits immunized with vaccines of Streptococcus mutans, strain KI-R, and Streptococcus pneumoniae, type 32. The antibodies of one type were directed at a glycan of L-rhamnose, D-glucose, and D-galactose in the cell wall of S. mutans, and those of the other type, against a capsular glycan of L-rhamnose and D-glucose from S. pneumoniae. The two types of anti-rhamnose antibody were immunologically distinct, and showed no reciprocal cross-reactivity. Additional properties of the two types of antibody were determined; thus, both types of antibody were of the IgG class of immunoglobulins, both possessed molecular weights of 1.45 X 10(5), and both consisted of multiple or isomeric forms.
D000918:Antibody Specificity; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000276:immunology; D002846:Chromatography, Affinity; D005779:Immunodiffusion; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000276:immunology; D008970:Molecular Weight; D012210:Rhamnose / Q000276:immunology*; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000276:immunology*
D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D012210:Rhamnose