ABSTRACT
Objective To reduce immunogenicity of porcine skin by removingα-Gal epitopes expressed in cell surface and extracellular matrix using recombinant α-galactosidase produced by Bacteroides fragilis.Methods The porcine skin was harvested from healthy 2-month-old pigs without any skin disorders before being sterilized by iodine and 75%alcohol, respectively.Enzymatic removal of α-Gal antigen was followed by washing with PBS.The α-Gal antigen in the prepared porcine skin was measured with immunofluorostaining of cryosections and the residual enzyme was measured with a double-antibody sandwich ELISA method.Enzymatic removal procedures were optimized by detecting residual enzyme and the effi-cacy ofα-Gal removal under different enzymatic and washing conditions.Results Efficient enzymatic and washing methods were established to removeα-Gal antigen.Theα-Gal removal efficacy was above 90% and residual enzyme was undetect-able (αprescribed minimum ofα-galactosidase detection with indirect ELISA was 1 ng/ml) .Conclusion It is feasible to efficiently removeα-Gal antigen under these enzymatic and washing conditions, and a method of producing low-immunoge-nicity pig skin dressing for burn is established.
ABSTRACT
Objective To establish a method of quantiying trace α-galactosidase from Bacteroides fragilis in enzymatic conversion of blood group B to O red blood cells ( B-ECO RBCs) .Methods BALB/c mice were immunized with purified recombinant B.fragilisα-galactosidase ( the purity>90%) to prepare monoclonal antibodies.The ascites were prepared using hybridoma cell lines stably secreting antibody and purified by HiTrap rProtein A column.The antibody titer and spe-cificity were detected by ELISA and Western blotting, respectively.Purified monoclonal antibody and rabbit polyclonal an-tibody were applied to detect residual enzyme in B-ECO RBCs and the washing solution was analyzed by indirect ELISA. Results A high titer and purity antibody was obtained.Western blotting showed that the antibody specifically reacted with B.fragilisα-galactosidase.Moreover, indirect ELISA was sensitive enough to detect the minimal amount of residualα-gal-actosidase at the concentration of 1 ng/ml.After four repeat washing cycles with 1∶4 ( v/v) phosphate-buffered saline, the amount of residual enzyme in B-ECO RBCs was less than 10 ng/ml.Conclusion An effective method of detecting the min-imal amount of residual α-galactosidase in blood conversion is established for safety evaluation of universal RBCs prepara-tion by enzymatic treatment.