The Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol 44, Issue 1 35-40, Copyright © 1996 by Society for General Microbiology

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Phosphorylcholine-containing antigens in bacteria from the mouth and respiratory tract

S. H. Gillespie, S. Ainscough, A. Dickens and J. Lewin
Department of Microbiology, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London.

Phosphorylcholine (PC)-containing antigens were sought in 269 bacterial isolates from the mouth and respiratory tract by an enzyme immunoassay method. Only 41 (15%) isolates were PC-positive and of these 29 (70%) were strains of Haemophilus influenzae. Other species that produced positive results included two of five isolates of Gemella haemolysans, two of five isolates of Micrococcus spp., and a single strain each of Bacillus sp., Corynebacterium jeikeium, Lactococcus sp. and H. parainfluenzae. The presence of PC-containing antigens in H. influenzae may be an important source of cross-reaction in antigen detection techniques that detect the C-polysaccharide antigen of Streptococcus pneumoniae in respiratory specimens and would result in false positive results.

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