Abstract
Fifteen clinical isolates of Trichomonas vaginalis were evaluated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with transfer to nitrocellulose and by immunoblots probed with human sera. All T. vaginalis isolates showed similar banding patterns by Coomassie brilliant blue and silver staining of the electrophoresis gels and by amido black staining of the nitrocellulose. However, by the immunoblot technique, differences in banding patterns were noted, particularly in the high-molecular-weight zone (greater than 1.5 X 10(5], which were consistent in numerous experiments. A common immunogenic band was noted at a molecular weight of approximately 100,000 in all T. vaginalis isolates probed with six sera reactive in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay but was not seen or was only faintly visible when isolates were probed with sera considered to be nonreactive by the assay. Many other bands were identified, some of which appeared common to all isolates, but were not recognized by all sera tested. These studies demonstrate the antigenic heterogeneity of T. vaginalis and show that different individuals appear to respond immunologically to different T. vaginalis antigens.