Using a bacterial soluble antigen: A tool to dissolve the problem of Listeriosis

Listeria infection is still a dominant infectious problem in Iran, particularly in abortion. Looking for a paraclinical technique other than bacterial methods (which is not always available) lead to serological survey indicating estimation anti listeria antibody by Immunoflourescent test. Unfortunately the false positive results due to cross reaction between "listeria monocytogenesis" and certain gram positive cocci, made it an unacceptable technique. Here we performed a test to extract the Listeria M. (Stranin 4a and 1b) soluble antigen and detecting the antibody by counter immunoelectrophoresis (CEI). The results indicated that of four bacterial soluble antigen fractions F1 and F3 were significantly positive with patients sera. We will discuss using the soluble antigen by CEI technique may be helpful to omit the false positive reactions