本研究之目的是以雞的卵黃免疫球蛋白（IgY）對表皮葡萄球菌進行免疫抗菌。在過去表皮葡萄球菌被普遍認為是人類皮膚上無害的共生菌，而現在被視為重要的致病菌。 IgY 是鳥類蛋黃中的抗體，其製作成本相對於一般抗體低，過程簡便且產量豐富，也較符合動物福利。本研究將表皮葡萄球菌製作成抗原，並對產蛋母雞施打免疫注射。蛋黃與蛋白分離後再透過水稀法將蛋黃中的所有抗體粗萃出來，然後再以抗原吸附管住把其中的抗表皮葡萄球菌抗體純化出來。蛋黃中的抗表皮葡萄球菌 IgY抗體在 1：1,000,000 的稀釋濃度下對表皮葡萄球菌抗原有反應。對所純化之 IgY 分子量做測量顯示所得之IgY 是 >90% 純度且其重鏈與輕鏈分子量分別為70 kDa及24 kDa。 以打碎的細菌蛋白對所純化之抗體做活性試驗，結果顯示抗表皮葡萄球菌 IgY 抗體分別在 63 kDa 以及 48 kDa 的位置辨認到兩個條帶。 以純化後所取得之專一性抗體做抑菌試驗，結果顯示所純化之抗表皮葡萄球菌抗體可顯著抑制表皮葡萄球菌之生長(P﹤0.0001)。 綜合言之，本試驗所製備的抗體可以辮認到打碎的表皮葡萄球菌細菌蛋白，並抑制細菌生長。
The goal of this study is to characterize the purified anti-Staphylococcus epidermidis chicken egg yolk immunoglobulins (IgY) for therapeutic purpose. In the past, Staphylococcus epidermidis is generally considered to be a harmless symbiotic bacterium on human skin, but now is considered as an important pathogen. Chicken IgY has several advantages for its low producing cost, easy production and more humane as well due to it's noninvasive production processing. In this study laying hens were immunized subcutaneously with antigens extracted from Staphylococcus epidermidis. Egg yolk was separated from egg white, and specific IgY antibody was then purified by antigen affinity column. Results showed that anti-Staphylococcus epidermidis IgY was able to bind with S. epidermidis antigens at a dilution of 1: 1,000,000. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed that the IgY preparation is successful that obtained purity greater than 90％ and it dissociated into protein fragments with molecular weights of heavy chain and light chain as 70 kD and 24 kDa, respectively. Western blot analysis indicated that the anti-S. epidermidis IgY can recognize two bands (63 kDa and 48 Da) of the S. epidermidis bacterial protein extract. The antibacterial test was performed with the specific antibodies obtained after purification. The results showed that the purified anti- S. Epidermidis antibodies could significantly inhibit the growth of S. epidermidis (P ﹤ 0.0001). These results showed that the purified anti-S. epidermidis IgY can recognized the Staphylococcus epidermidis antigen, and inhibit bacterial growth.
