ANISAKIS SIMPLEX - STAGE-SPECIFIC ANTIGENS RECOGNIZED BY MICE

To investigate antigenic differences between the developmental stages of Anisakis simplex, somatic, excretion-secretion and detergent-solubi lized surface antigen preparations of third- and fourth-stage A. simpl ex larvae, and a somatic antigen preparation of adults, were character ized by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting using mouse immune serum containin g antibodies against the two larval stages. Excretion-secretion and su rface antigen preparations from third-stage larvae behaved very differ ently from those of fourth-stage larvae, in both SDS-PAGE and immunobl otting; this suggests that certain excretion-secretion and surface ant igens are highly stage-specific. By contrast, somatic components of th ird- and fourth-stage larvae were found to have very similar banding p atterns, suggesting conservation of these components during the develo pment of the parasite in mice. The SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting results for adult somatic components seem to support this hypothesis.