The ability of the Lyme disease spirochete to attach to host components may contribute to its ability to infect diverse tissues. We present evidence that the Lyme disease spirochete expresses a lectin activity that promotes agglutination of erythrocytes and bacterial attachment to glycosaminoglycans. Among a diverse collection of 21 strains of Lyme disease spirochete, hemagglutinating activity ...

Sparse information is available on the virulence factors of Aeromonas strains isolated from diseased fish, from the environment, and from humans. In the present study, 52 Aeromonas isolates obtained from epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS) lesions in fish, from the aquatic environment, and from children with diarrhea in Bangladesh were identified by biochemical phenotyping (i.e., PhenePlate [Ph...

Equilibrium dialysis studies on the binding of the Dolichos biflorus lectin with [14C]methyl alpha-D-GalNAc showed that the lectin has two combining sites/molecule and an intrinsic association constant at 3 degrees C of 4.2 X 10(3) liters mol-1. Binding studies on individual fractions (II, IV, and VII) of the lectin that differ in their chromatographic properties on concanavalin A-Sepharose gav...

Rapid agglutination of Actinomyces viscosus and Actinomyces naeslundii cells by D-mannose solutions was observed during studies of their attachment to mammalian cells in vitro. The specificity of the agglutination reaction was studied by slide agglutination tests and by measuring the rate of decrease in optical density of bacterial phosphate buffer suspensions caused by the setting of bacterial...

Thulin (1-3) has recently reported an agglutination test, using human serum and hemolytic streptococci which had been treated at a high temperature. He found that in human sera the agglutination titers were significantly higher in samples from patients with rheumatic fever and with rheumatoid arthritis than in others and that the titers observed in both diseases were similar. This test would se...

Porphyromonas gingivalis 381 fimbriae, their synthetic peptide segments, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were examined for hemagglutinating and migration-stimulating activities. P. gingivalis 381 fimbriae clearly caused hemagglutination, and several oligopeptide segments such as FP381(61-80), FP381(171-185), and FP381(302-321), corresponding to the amino acid residue numbers based on the amino aci...

Surfactant proteins A (SP-A) and D (SP-D) play an important role in the innate immune defenses of the respiratory tract. SP-A binds to the lipid A region of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and SP-D binds to the core oligosaccharide region. Both proteins induce aggregation, act as opsonins for neutrophils and macrophages, and have direct antimicrobial activity. Bordetella pertussis LPS has a branched ...

The ability of certain viruses to agglutinate red cells (1) is widely employed as a basis of titration, because of the speed and simplicity of the reaction. Usefulness of the method has been limited, however, by lack of a reliable means of translating hemagglutinating activity into an absolute number of active particles per cubic centimeter, so tha t values obtained for a single virus can only ...

Escherichia coli is the most common cause of urinary tract infections, especially those strains with hair-like fimbriae that aid in adhesion to the urinary tract. Binding to the epithelial cells lining the urinary tract is the first step in such an infection. A class of compounds found in cranberries called proanthocyanidins has been shown to inhibit P-fimbriated E. coli from binding to uroepit...

BACKGROUND Monomers of the collectin surfactant associated protein-A (SP-A) are arranged in trimers and higher oligomers. The state of oligomerization differs between individuals and likely affects SP-A's functional properties. SP-A can form aggregates together with other SP-A molecules. Here we report and assess a test system for the aggregate forming properties of SP-A in serum and broncho-al...