Abstracts

Abstract

M.leprae(ML) grow in the lesion which occur in the portion of the patient where hyaluronic acid (HA) is abundunt.Among the enzymes which participate in the hydrolysis of HA, we studied about betaglucuronidase, showing strong activity in the lesion and realized that the enzyme was host-originated. That suggested the biosynthesis of betaglucuronidase binding protein (BGBP) by ML. Accordingly we extracted BGBP from a leproma-derived and cultivable mycobacterium HI-75 and made rabbit antibody against that.In this study we examined therefore the immunoreactivity against the BGBP in the leproma and the other infectious lesions.As the result the immunoreactive sites for BGBP were not only in the leproma but in the lesions caused by the other parasitic microorganisms such as M. avium-intracellulare, M. tuberculosis, and hepatitis B virus.The results indicated that the other microorganism besides ML utilize the same type of metabolic pathway as the ML.