Serotyping of Legionella pneumophila and epidemiological investigations

*Jürgen H. Helbig¹, Junko Amemura-Maekawa²

Streszczenie
Legionella pneumophila, the causative agent of Legionnaires´ disease, is characterised by a high degree of serological diversity caused on its lipopolysaccharide (LPS) structure.
Aim: Evaluation of L. pneumophila serotyping based on monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) of the Dresden Panel using ELISA and its possible employment in epidemiological investigations.
Material and methods: Patient and environmental isolates of L. pneumophila were typed using ELISA and/or indirect immunofluorescence test (IFT) according to standard procedures.
Results: The LPS epitope recognized by MAb 3/1 is virulence-associated. Its distributions among patient and environmental isolates differ significantly (P<0.01). Addition of MAb-typing to sequence typing of L. pneumophila increases the discrimination power.
Conclusions: Recognition of L. pneumophila LPS diversity using high-specific MAbs opens detailed information about taxonomy and Legionella populations in aquatic habitats. ELISA is the method of choice for serotyping of high numbers of isolates with many MAbs. Differentiation of Legionella strains into LPS profiles is an important step for confirmation or refutation of the identity of patient and environmental isolates and supplements additional information to genotypical data.

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