Immunodominant polypeptides in somatic antigen of adult Haemonchus contortus by western blotting and immunoprecipitation

Abstract

Haemonchus contortus commonly found in sheep and goat is a pathogenic abomasal nematode. Adult worms collected from abomasums of infected animals were utilized for the preparation of somatic antigen and purified through immunoaffinity chromatography. Purified fraction was analysed through SDS-PAGE and immunodominant polypeptides were identified through western blotting. On probing with experimental sera of sheep infected with 8000 L3 of H contortus 60 and 120 kDa polypeptides were recognised as immunodominant polypeptides. In immunoprecipitation, first to eight week sera ofsheep captured H contortus antigen which upon elution from the immune complex revealed 60 and 120 kDa polypeptides in SDS-PAGE analysis. The study indicated that 60 and 120 kDa polypeptides were immunodominant in somatic antigen of adult H. contortus which may be utilized further for immunodiagnosisl immunoprophylactic purposes in H contortus infection.