NOVEL GLYCOLIPIDS OF MYCOBACTERIUM-AVIUM AND RELATED MYCOBACTERIUM-PARATUBERCULOSIS STRAINS OF RELEVANCE TO AIDS AND CROHNS-DISEASE

The polar glycolipid fractions of several mycobacterial strains of the closely related species M. avium and M. paratuberculosis have been an alysed by thin layer chromatography (TLC), high pH anion exchange chro matography (HPAEC), gas-liquid chromatography (GC) and nuclear magneti c resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The upper phase of a Folch partitionin g (rather than the lower phase analysed by others) was subjected to TL C in solvent system chloroform-methanol-water 50:40:10 v/v/v. A major band was purified from each mycobacterial strain. Monosaccharide analy sis of that from M. avium A14 (from an AIDS patient) contained Glc, Ar a, Man, Gal in ratios 7:4:3:2. whereas one strain of M. paratuberculos is (316F) had low levels of Ara, Gal and Man with major monosaccharide s being Glc and two unidentified monosaccharides. A second M. paratube rculosis strain (J10) had a single TLC band containing only Glc. These known strains were compared to two slow growing mycobacterial isolate s, one from a Crohn's patient and one isolated from armadillo. These w ere similar to J10 in only having Glc present: the former also had a s imilar NMR spectrum to J10, whereas the latter had a different NMR spe ctrum from any of the other strains analysed. The results therefore in dicate that M. paratuberculosis strain 316F is more closely related to M. avium (from an AIDS patient) than it is to the classical M. paratu berculosis strain J10 and a Crohn's isolate.