Investigation of Toxoplasma infection among planned pregnant women in Chongqing,China / 中国人兽共患病学报

We investigated the Toxop lasma infection prevalence among planned pregnant women in Chongqing ,and to pro‐vide reference for the first level intervention of birth defects in the region .A total of 11 953 planned pregnant women were se‐lected by proportionally stratified multi‐stage random sampling method .Questionnaire survey was given to the women ,and blood samples were collected .Specific IgM and IgG antibodies against Toxoplasma were detected with ELISA .Results showed that among the 11 953 cases surveyed ,Toxoplasma IgM was positive in 71 cases ,with the positive rate of 0 .59% ;IgG was positive in 771 cases ,with the positive rate of 6 .54% .The positive rate of IgM and IgG antibodies in the metropolitan core re‐gion of the city was higher than that in the suburb areas (χ2 =35 .28 ,P<0 .000 1 ;χ2 =82 .65 ,P<0 .000 1) .The positive rate of IgM antibody increased with the educational level (χ2trend=3 .25 ,P=0 .001 1) .The positive rates of IgM and IgG varied in occupations among women (χ2 =13 .93 , P= 0 .016 0;χ2 = 15 .58 ,χ2 =0 .008 1) ,with the highest rate of public officials . Planned pregnant women with the history of abnormal pregnancy outcomes had higher positive rate of T .gondii IgM and IgG antibodies than those in the control (χ2 =6 .85 ,P=0 .008 9;χ2 =59 .25 ,P<0 .000 1) .There was no significant difference of IgM positive rate between the planned pregnancy women who had closed contact to cats and the control group (χ2 =0 .23 ,P=0 .628 6) ,while the positive rate of IgG was higher than that of the control group (χ2 =9 .95 ,P=0 .001 6) .T .gondii infec‐tion rate was on the low level of planned pregnant women in Chongqing .Adverse pregnancy outcomes are related to Toxoplas‐ma infection .

Preparation and identification of anti-TgAQP peptide antibody / 中国人兽共患病学报

In this study ,we intended to prepare anti‐Toxoplasma gondii aquaporin (TgAQP) peptide antibody which was used to the application in the detection of the aquaporin expression and its subcellular localization of Toxop lasma gondii (T .gondii) ME49 strain .The B cell peptide antigen was designed based on the TgAQP amino acids sequence .After the pep‐tide antigen was conjugated to the KLH ,the fusion antigen was injected into New Zealand rabbits to prepare polyclonal anti‐body ,followed by identification of ELISA ,Western‐blotting and immunofluorescence assays .The ELISA showed that the titer of anti‐TgAQP antibody was about 1∶40 000 .Western blotting revealed the specific affinity of the antigen to polyclonal anti‐body at 29 .9 kDa protein T .gondii .The protein detected by the indirect immunofluorescence assays was distributed in the cy‐toplasm of the parasite .Thus far ,the anti‐TgAQP polyclonal antibody was successfully prepared ,providing a useful tool for further study of biological function and metabolic characteristics of TgAQP .