Abstract

The skin ulcer in Leishmania major infection is known to be variable according to the inoculation sites even in a susceptible host. The present study traced the immunoblot patterns by the site of inoculation and duration of infection in BALB/c mice. L. major were subcutaneously inoculated on the nose, footpad, and back of the mice, in a dose of 3 x 10(6) promastigotes. Sera of the mice were collected every 10 days after inoculation. SDS-PAGE separated soluble protein bands of the promastigotes and immunoblot was carried out with the infection sera. The skin ulcer first appeared on the nose at 15 days, and on the footpad at 17 days after inoculation. The ulcer on the back appeared after 90 days. In the mice with ulcer on the nose or footpad, serum IgG antibody reacted to 202, 139, 98, 83, 81, 67 65, 62, 59, 54, 52, 42, 26 and 23 kDa bands at 20 days after inoculation. In mice inoculated on the back, however, the immunoblot showed visible reactions with 202, 83, 81, 74, 67, 65, 62, 59, 54, 52, 20 and 17 kDa bands at 90 days after inoculation. The present result showed that the antigenic protein bands of L. major promastigotes were differed by the inoculation site and duration of infection. Since the skin ulcer and the serum antibodies to antigenic bands between 67-52 kDa appeared simultaneously, it is suggested that the serum IgG antibodies may play a role in formation of the skin ulcer in BALB/c mice.