[Serologic diagnosis of human african trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense. 1--Production and use of rough antigens in ELISA and latex agglutination tests]

The extraction of rough antigens (Ag) from trypanosomes came across a major problem getting of a high number of parasites. Moreover several technics for the extraction of rough antigens are described. Some of them are sophisticated and time consuming. Aiming the obtention of a large number of Ag for this study, inoculation of trypanosomes into Cricetomys gambianus and affinity chromatography of blood allow to collect of large number of trypanosomes. This new technique leads to the extraction of 50 to 60 mg of rough Ag of trypanosomes isolated from infected Cricetomys. In order to set up a specific and sensitive serological diagnosis of gambian human trypanosomiasis, the different rough Ag were used comparatively by ELISA and Latex Agglutination tests. Confirming previous works, the results indicate a high sensitivity and a doubtful specificity for both techniques.