The Specific Antibody to Brachyspira aalborgi in Serum Obtained from a Patient with Intestinal Spirochetosis

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Serum obtained from a patient histopathologically diagnosed as intestinal spirochetosis was investigated serodiagnostically by agglutination test. B. aalborgi which is a human intestinal spirochete reacted strongly with the human serum, while B. pilosicoli which has potential pathogenicity to humans reacted with the serum, but as strongly and its titer was different than the other three species. On the other hand, intestinal spirochetes (Matsumoto isolates) were isolated from the biopsy samples of the patient. The morphological, biochemical, and genetic characteristics of the isolates were very similar to those of B. aalborgi. Furthermore, the protein profiles of the Matsumoto isolates were also similar to those of B. aalborgi but were different than those of B. pilosicoli and B. hyodysenteriae. The reaction profiles of the Matsumoto isolates in immunoblotting were relatively similar to those of B. aalborgi except for a 74 kDa band but were different from those of B. pilosicoli and B. hyodysenteriae. Therefore, we identified the Matsumoto isolates as B. aalborgi and diagnosed the patient with a B. aalborgi infection. KEY WORDS: Brachyspira aalborgi, human, intestinal spirochete.

Intestinal Bacterial Infection Diagnosed by Histological Examination of Endoscopic Biopsy Specimens

“…B.aalborgi is the most prevalent species in Western countries and Japan, while B.pilosicoli infection is prevalent predominantly in less-developed countries and may be more common in HIV-positive patients [3, 5, 10]. The two species can be differentiated by PCR-based genotyping [2] and a serological agglutination test [11]. The mean length of B. aalborgi is 3.8 μm (range, 2–4.5 μm), which is significantly shorter than that of B. pilosicoli (mean, 5.5 μm; range, 3.2–11 μm) [3].…”

Human intestinal spirochetosis – a review

“…Nine cases of bacteremia caused by B. pilosicoli , mostly in immunocompromised or critically ill patients have been reported in the English literature [61], [62], and a specific antibody to B. aalborgi could be obtained from the serum of a patient with IS [63]. …”

The comparison of the intensity of human intestinal spirochetes between <i>Brachyspira pilosicoli</i> and <i>Brachyspira aalborgi</i> infections

“…(5) Definitive diagnosis requires the use of polymerase chain reaction, electron microscopy, (6) imprint cytology, (7) and detection of serum antibody titers to B. aalborgi and to B. pilosicoli with agglutination titers. (8) We also isolated B. aalborgi and observed the genetic and immunological characteristics. (9) All isolates also reacted with strain ATCC51139 and NCTC11492 strongly, but the reaction profiles attributed to our isolates were slightly different from those of ATCC51139 and NCTC11492.…”