APMIS : acta pathologica, microbiologica, et immunologica Scandinavica
-
The main goal of this study was to develop a vaccination strategy that would enhance the protective response against the recombinant type A flagellin (r-fla-A) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the burn wound sepsis model. Inbred mice were immunized with r-fla-A with or without alum adjuvant. The vaccinated mice were burned and challenged with P. aeruginosa. ⋯ Anti r-fla-A antibody promoted phagocytosis of the PAK strain, and the number of viable bacterial cells decreased over 53.1%; In contrast, low opsonophagocytic killing activity (17.4%) was observed when the antiserum to r-fla-A was treated with the PAO1 strain. The anti r-fla-A antisera was able to inhibit the motility of the homologous strains; however, they did not inhibit the heterologous strains. We concluded that active immunization with recombinant type A-flagellin could protect burn mice against lethal P. aeruginosa challenge via immobilization of the pathogen which promoted the phagocytic activity.