title: Identification of Bacteroides fragilis by co-agglutination, using a specific monoclonal antibody.
abstract: A monoclonal antibody, mAbC3 (IgG(2b)), specific for the Bacteroides fragilis lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was produced and found to react with a common epitope in most strains within the species. mAbC3 was adsorbed to Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I strain and used in a co-agglutination assay for identification of B. fragilis. Almost 98% of the B. fragilis strains were positive in co-agglutination. Among the 283 non-B. fragilis only two strains showed false positive reaction. These results show that the mAbC3 has a high specificity and can be used for the rapid identification of the B. fragilis species.
authors.affiliation: Karolinska Institute, Department of Immunology, Microbiology, Pathology and Infectious Diseases, Division of Clinical and Oral Bacteriology, Huddinge University Hospital, S-141 86, Huddinge, Sweden.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weintraub