Sero-diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis: attempts to determine antigen and antibody relevance to infection.

Attempt was made to define antigens and antisera which might prove useful in diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis in man. A convalescent antiserum (serum from rabbits after liver infection with Aspergillus fumigatus conidia) which might be more representative of immunological reaction to fungal growth in vivo, did not react in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with commerical antigens which are used at present in attempts to detect antibody response in systemic infections in man. However, this convalescent antiserum reacted with antigens from a range of fungal extracts. Antigens from young culture filtrates in particular the 24th culture filtrate are advocated as the standard antigens for antibody detection using conventional immunoprecipitation techniques. For the detection of circulating antigens, the use of convalescent antiserum in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay might be promising in the early diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis.