Characterization of Yersinia Omps as immunogenic components in Yersinia-induced arthritis.

SERER MARÍA; CIUFFO GLADYS; DI GENARO SILVIA

San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, República Argentina.

Congreso; 45th Annual Meeting Argentine Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, XLV Reunión Anual Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular.; 2009

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular.

Reactive arthritis (ReA) is an aseptic synovitis that follows an extra-articular infection. Yersinia enterocolitica causes intestinal infection which could be complicated by ReA. Since the pathogenesis of ReA is incompletely understood, appropriate treatments are not available. We previously demonstrate that TNFRp55-/- mice develop Yersinia-induced arthritis, and Yersinia outer membrane (OM) is the relevant bacterial fraction triggering ReA. The purpose of the present work was to characterize the bacterial proteins that induce antibody response in the joint. TNFRp55-/- mice were orally infected with Y. enterocolitica O:3. At 21 days after infection, antibody response to OM proteins was studied by Western blot of the joint extracts. OM proteins were separated by SDS-polyacrylamide 12% gel and stained with Coomasie blue. The protein bands were excised and sent for MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry analysis. Mass data collected during MALDI-TOF analysis were processed and submitted to the search software MASCOT. By Western blot, reactions to 35 and 40 kDa OM proteins were detected. Database searches of peptide mass fingerprinting indicated Yersinia OmpA and OmpC proteins as the 35 and 40 kDa immunoreactive proteins, respectively. We concluded that OmpA and OmpC correspond to the immunogenic OM in the joint of arthritic TNFRp55-/- mice.