Author(s): Németh, I.
Title: Studies on humoral antibodies in experimental infections of rabbits with Cysticercus pisiformis (Bloch, 1780). III. Characteristics of the antibody response to primary and secondary infections
Title: A humorális ellenanyagok tanulmányozása nyulakban kísérletileg létesített Cysticercus pisiformis (Bloch, 1780)-fertőzöttség esetén III. A primer és szekunder fertőzöttségre adott ellenanyagválasz jellegzetessége
Year: 1972
Volume: 5
Pages: 99-134.
Abstract: The humoral antibody response of rabbits to primary and secondary infections with Cysticercus pisiformis (Bloch, 1780), the larval form of Taenia pisiformis (Bloch, 1780) Gmelin, 1790 (Cestoda: Taeniidae) has been studied. Rabbits, aged 5 to 7 weeks, weighing 500 to 1000 g, were each infected with 500 eggs of T. pisiformis, and a group of the was reinfected with 10 000 eggs 60 days later. On the 100th day of the experiment all animals were killed and examined for the presence of cysticerci. Blood samples were collected at frequent intervals, and the serum tested for antibodies. In response to infection all rabbits produced antibodies detectable by the agar gel diffusion precipitin, larval precipitin, and indirect haemagglutination tests. Haemagglutinating antibodies appeared in all animals by the second week and persisted throughout the experiment. The dynamics of accumulation of haemagglutinins was characterized by a gradual increase of the mean titre from the second week of infection to a peak on day 50, then a slight decline. The time-course development of precipitating antibodies was similar to that of haemagglutinating antibodies. Precipitin activity was first detected in the sera on the second week after infection, reached a peak between weeks 6-10, and fell considerably there after but still present on the 100th day. Reinfection with 10 000 eggs on day 60 of the primary infection elicited an abrupt rise of both haemagglutinating and precipitating antibodies. The classes of immunoglobulins carrying the antibodies produced in the course of infection were determined by salting out, by preparative zone electrophoresis in agar, by elution from DEAE-Sephadex A-50, by the alteration of antibody activity after treatment with 2-mercaptoethanol, and by immunoelectrophoreti-cal analysis of immune sera to antigen-antibody precipitates made with sera of infected rabbits and the whole extract and/or the “secretions and excretions” of both T. pisiformis and C.pisiformis. It was found that the oncosphaeres of T. pisiformis induced a compex and heterogenous antibody response in the rabbits. Antibodies to at least four different antigenic components were produced in the course of infection, and were shown to be associated with two distinct immunoglobulin classes : anti-bodies formed in responses to primary infection belonged to the IgG immunoglobulin class; and while these were still predominant in secondary responses a small proportion (10-15 %) of IgM antibodies was also detectable.Journal: Parasitologia HungaricaJournal abbreviation: ISSN: 0303-688XPublisher: Népművelési Propaganda Iroda, BudapestEditor(s): Holló, F., Harsányi, L., K. Murai, É., Thoma, A. & Nemes, I.