Monoclonal antibodies to enterobacterial common antigen and to Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide outer core: demonstration of an antigenic determinant shared by enterobacterial common antigen and E. coli K5 capsular polysaccharide.

We established hybridoma cell lines producing monoclonal antibodies against enterobacterial common antigen (ECA) and a substructure of the outer core of different Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharides (LPSs). Anti-ECA antibodies 865 and 898 reacted with ECA in extracts of heated E. coli and with ECA-bound R1 and R4 core-containing LPS preparations, as well as with a purified sample of ECA from Salmonella montevideo. Antibody 865, but not antibody 898, cross-reacted with K5 capsular polysaccharide, suggesting that 4-linked alpha-N-acetylglucosamine is part of an antigenic determinant shared by both K5 polysaccharide and ECA. Anti-LPS antibody 786 recognized an outer core structure common to E. coli K-12, B, R2, and R4 core type LPS, but not to R1 and R3 core type LPS. Its most probable target is the trisaccharide sequence Hexp(1----2)-alpha-D -Glcp(1----3) alpha-D-Glcp----(Hepp) (where Hex is hexose, p is phosphate, Glc is glucose, and Hep is heptose), the first glucose being the immunodominant moiety. These monoclonal antibodies may be used not only for the detection of ECA, K5, and LPS core structures but also for analysis of the molecular forms resolved on polyacrylamide gels (banding patterns) of both ECA and LPS, independently of one another.