Abstract
The present study was conducted to isolate Babesia gibsoni by culture method of the microaerophilous stationary phase(MASP) and analyse the antigenic properties of the parasite by SDS-PAGE and immunoblot. The results obtained were summarized as follows. The protozoan parasite Babesia gibsoni multiplied in canine erythrocytes in RPMI 1640 medium(pH7.0) containing 20 40% normal canine serum under the MASP condition of 5% CO2 and 95% air at $37^{\circ}C$ incubator. The levels of parasitaemia in the erythrocytes were shown more higher by exchanging the medium at 24 hours interval. Under the above condition of MASP, the percentage of parasitized erythrocytes(PPE) after incubation for 8 days increased about 14 times more than that in the initiation of the 1% infected canine erythrocyte culture. The parasites were purely isolated from the MASP culture of red blood cells collected from dogs infected with Babesia gibsoni naturally or artificially. Among the total of 36 canine(Pit-bullterier) blood samples the parasites were isolated from 17 cases(47.2%) in the MASP culture while the parasites were detected from 20 cases(56%) and 12 cases(33.3%), respectively, by indirect fluorescent antibody(IFA) test and direct light microscopy(DLM). On the other hand, Babesia gibsoni was isolated by MASP culture from 15 cases(75%) and 11 cases(92%) of positive cases of IFA and DLM, respectively. In the analysis of the erythrocytic merozoite(AEOM) antigen derived from infected dog approximately 11 antigenic bands in molecular weight of 130, 120, 97.4, 92, 80, 52, 50, 42, 36, 30 and 29 KDa were observed on SDS-PAGE. Antigenic bands in the endoerythrocytic merozoite(CEOM) antigen derived from infected erythrocyte (sediment) in MASP culture were much similar to those of AEOM bands. In the exoerythrocytic merozoite(CEEM) antigen derived from supernatant of the infected erythrocyte culture approximately 20 antigenic bands were observed and the molecular weight of the major bands among these were 140, 120, 114, 105, 96, 93, 92, 80, 60, 52, 50, 38, 36, 30, 24, 18.5 and 16 KDa. In the protein patterns of AEOM and CEOM antigen by immunoblot 15 bands were observed and these patterns were much similar between each other. The molecular weight of the major bands in the both antigens were 130, 120, 80, 60, 52, 50, 42, 30, 29, 18.5 and 16 KDa. Approximately 21 bands were observed in CEEM antigen and the molecular weight of the major bands were 140, 120, 96, 92, 85, 80, 76, 60, 52, 50, 37, 30, 24, 16 and 15 KDa. The specific antigenic bands in the artificially infected dogs were firstly observed at 3 weeks afrer inoculation of infected blood and these antigenic bands were maintained up to 18 months after inoculation. In the immunoblot of the sera of the splenectomized dogs the specific antigenic bands with the molecular weight of 93 KDa and 52 KDa, respectively, were observed weakly comparing to those of non-splenectomized dog. In immunoblot of the sera collected from the naturally infected dogs the antigenic bands were observed as same as those of artificially infected dogs while antigenic band of 29 KDa in some individual dog showed strongly. In comparison of immunoblot of the sera collected from dogs non-treated and treated with diminazene aceturate(7mg/kg, IM) after artificial infection no differences of antigenic bands were observed. In analysis of antigenic bands by digoxigenin glycan/protein double labeling, antigenic bands in the molecular weight of 106, 60 58, 36, 30 and 29 KDa were determined as glycoproteins.