Immunological and Genetical Heterogeneity of Pneumocystis carinii

肺孢子虫生物体引起的肺孢子虫感染已在多种哺乳动物中报道，包括猪、马、雪貂、大鼠、小鼠和人类。长期以来，这些动物的肺孢子虫被认为是唯一的物种，卡氏肺孢子虫，导致推测卡氏肺孢子虫肺炎是人畜共患病。在受控实验条件下，卡氏肺孢子虫显然可通过空气传播途径在同种动物之间传播。然而，来自一个宿主物种的卡氏肺孢子虫感染另一个物种成员的能力尚不清楚。由于它们的相似性，试图从形态学上证实这些生物是困难的。在本研究中，我们进行了血清群，嗜热菌群和酶原分析，以研究表型和基因型之间的差异肺孢子虫生物体从不同的宿主物种。对于血清群分析，我们采用了间接荧光抗体技术和蛋白质印迹技术与使用的单克隆和多克隆抗体提出的肺孢子虫生物体从小鼠，大鼠和人类。血清组和酶组分析清楚地显示了它们表型的差异。裂殖群分析，使用聚合酶链反应与特定引物的大鼠和小鼠衍生的生物体，然后通过限制性内切酶处理的产品确认生物体之间的基因型差异。我们可以明确区分大鼠、小鼠和人类肺孢子虫生物体的技术和试剂的可用性促使我们重新审视卡氏肺孢子虫从一种宿主物种传播到另一种宿主物种的问题。

Opportunistic infections caused by Pneumocystis organisms have been reported in a variety of mammals including pigs, horses, ferrets, rats, mice, and humans. Pneumocystis organisms from those animals has long been considered to belong to the only species, Pneumocystis carinii, leading the speculation that P.carinii pneumonia is zoonosis. P.carinii is clearly transmissible between animals of the same species by the airborne route under controlled experimental conditions. However, the ability of P.carinii from one host species to infect members of another species is unclear. Attempts of morphological distinguishment of the organisms were difficult because of their resemblance. In the present study, we performed serodeme, schizodeme and zymodene analyzes to study both phenotype and genotype variation among Pneumocystis organisms from different host species. For serodeme analysis, we employed an indirect fluorescence antibody technique and a Western blot technique with the use of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies raised against Pneumocystis organisms from mice, rats, and humans. Serodeme and zymodeme analyzes clearly demonstrated the differences of their phenotypes. Schizodeme analysis using polymerase chain reaction with specific primers for rat and mouse-derived organisms followed by treatment of the products by restriction enzymes confirmed genotype differences among organisms. The availability of techniques and reagents with which we could unequivocally distinguish between rats, mice, and human Pneumocystis organisms is prompting us to reexamine the issue of transmission of P.carinii from one host species to another.