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This study was conducted to partially characterize and identify the purity of two major outer membrane proteins (OMPs) (with molecular weights of 32,000 and 35,000 [32K and 35K, respectively]) of Pasteurella haemolytica. The 35K and 32K major OMPs, designated Pasteurella outer membrane proteins A and B (PomA and PomB, respectively), were extracted from P. haemolytica by solubilization in N-octyl polyoxyl ethylene. The P. haemolytica strain used was a mutant serotype A1 from which the genes expressing the 30-kDa lipoproteins had been deleted. PomA and PomB were separated and partially purified by anion-exchange chromatography. PomA but not PomB was heat modifiable. The N-terminal amino acid sequences of the two proteins were determined and compared with reported sequences of other known proteins. PomA had significant N-terminal sequence homology with the OmpA protein of Escherichia coli and related proteins from other gram-negative bacteria. Moreover, polyclonal antiserum raised against the E. coli OmpA protein reacted with this protein. PomA was surface exposed, was conserved among P. haemolytica biotype A serotypes, and had porin activity in planar bilayers. No homology between the N-terminal amino acid sequence of PomB and those of other known bacterial proteins was found. Cattle vaccinated with live P. haemolytica developed a significant increase in serum antibodies to partially purified PomA, as shown by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, and to purified PomA and PomB, as detected on Western blots and by densitometry.

Brucella abortus is a facultative intracellular pathogen of cattle and humans that is capable of survival inside macrophages. In order to understand how B. abortus copes with the conditions during intracellular growth in macrophages, the protein synthesis pattern of the bacteria grown inside bovine macrophages has been compared with that of bacteria grown in the cell culture medium by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Approximately 24 new proteins that are not detected in the bacteria grown in the cell culture medium have been induced during intracellular growth in macrophages. In contrast, approximately 50 proteins that were expressed during growth in cell culture medium were completely repressed during intracellular growth. The level of expression of 19 proteins increases while that of 54 proteins decreases during intracellular growth. To understand these results, the protein synthesis pattern of B. abortus during intracellular growth was compared with those during other stress conditions. Under each stress condition studied, several new proteins were induced that were not present during regular growth conditions. Comparison of the protein synthesis pattern of B. abortus during intracellular growth with those obtained under various stress conditions has indicated that the response to intracellular growth was not just a simple sum of stress conditions studied so far.

Our study was designed to investigate the nature of an antigen-specific suppressor factor generated by antigen-stimulated herpes simplex virus (HSV)-immune splenocytes. Factor SF-200, a 90,000- to 100,000-dalton fraction obtained after Sephacryl gel filtration, suppressed the generation of HSV-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte and lymphoproliferative responses. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blot analysis of SF-200 indicated that it contained an I-J+, anti-idiotypic protein. It was possible to adsorb the suppressor activity of SF-200 to an anti-I-J immunoaffinity column. The suppressor activity could be eluted from the immunoaffinity column with a low-pH buffer. The acid-eluted material was determined to be both I-J+ and reactive with anti-HSV antiserum by Western blot analysis. Both SF-200 and the I-J+ suppressor activity suppressed only HSV-specific cell-mediated immunity responses. However, it was possible to generate nonspecific suppressor activity by incubating the I-J+ suppressor factor with Lyt 1+ splenocytes from HSV-immune mice. The implication of these results with respect to the model for a suppressor cell circuit regulating HSV-specific cell-mediated immunity responses is discussed.