Purification and Characterization of Trichinella spiralis Antigens

T. spiralis (ISS533) was maintained in female ICR mice. Muscle larvae (ML) were recovered from infected mice using a modified pepsin-hydrochloric acid digestion method as previously described [20 (link)]. Adult worms were collected from the intestines of infected mice four days following oral larval challenge. Crude adult worm antigens were prepared from homogenized worm extracts based on a previously described protocol [18 ]. The anti-Ts-Pmy monoclonal antibody (mAb) 9G3 that specifically recognized Ts-Pmy was previously produced [19 (link)]. Recombinant Ts-Pmy (rTs-Pmy) with a His-tag at the C-terminus was expressed in baculovirus/insect cells (Invitrogen, USA) and purified by Ni-affinity chromatography (Qiagen, USA). Ts87 (38 kDa) was an excretory-secretory antigen of T. spiralis identified previously [21 (link)]. In this study, recombinant Ts87 (rTs87) was used as a non-relevant protein control.