These findings suggest that the differences observed among ELISA test results may be due principally to differences between the profiles of antigen coated on plates for the assays, rather than to differences between antibodies in serum and urine. The urine-based ELISA (URINELISA H. pylori) developed in this study is very accurate and would be useful for screening H. pylori infection as an alternative to serum ELISAs.
Urine and serum samples from 89 healthy volunteers and three healthy individuals who underwent rubella vaccination were tested for immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgA, and IgM to rubella virus (RV) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay methods. Subjects with positive (n = 68) or negative (n = 21) results for serum IgG were exactly the same as those with the corresponding results for urinary IgG. Both urinary and serum IgG levels remained elevated from the 3rd or 4th week after vaccination until the end of the study. Both urinary IgA and serum IgM levels tended to increase rapidly between the 3rd and 5th week and then gradually decrease until the end of the study, but the levels of both remained positive except for one sample each at the end (26th week). On the other hand, the ratio of anti-RV IgA titer to anti-RV IgG titer in urine (urinary anti-RV IgA/IgG ratio) increased rapidly between the 3rd and 4th week after vaccination and then rapidly returned to the ratio levels of the subjects positive for serum IgG from among the healthy volunteers. In summary, detection of urinary anti-RV IgG should be useful for screening for previous RV infection, and measurement of urinary anti-RV IgA/IgG ratio might be useful for diagnosing recent infection.
Interleukin-12 (IL-12), known to be a strong inducer of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), plays a vital role in activating the immune surveillance system against intracellular pathogens and malignant tumors. The authors have found that cancer patients showing marked IFN-gamma induction after inoculation with BCG-CWS (the cell wall skeleton from Bacille Calmette-Guérin) have a good prognosis. The present study was undertaken to determine whether the level of IL-12 is increased prior to, or along with, IFN-gamma induction in the serum of patients inoculated with BCG-CWS. Unexpectedly, we found no detectable amount of IL-12 in the serum throughout the entire time course. This suggests that a novel IFN-gamma inducing factor (IGIF) or another unknown IFN-gamma inducer may be working in place of IL-12 in the BCG-CWS system.
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