A Study of Natural and Acquired Immunity to Staphylococcal Toxin in Monkeys

[摘要] 1. 1. The natural antistaphylolysin (alpha) of the serum of a series of 65 monkeys (M. irus and M. mulatta) was found to vary from 0 to 25 international units; the largest number had from 4 to 5.2. 2. Individual monkeys, like rabbits and human beings, varied in their response to parenteral introduction of staphylotoxin. The maximal titers reached depend upon the route of injection, as well as upon their natural levels. Animals with high initial titers (10 units or more per cubic centimeter) develop antibodies more rapidly and reach a much higher level than those with low values.3. 3. High titers, up to 250 units per cubic centimeter, resulted from repeated injection of small doses of toxin, either intracutaneously or intrabronchially, the rapidity of antibody-production being in the order given. Intranasal instillation, with or without ether-anesthesia, yielded low titers.4. 4. Neither after active nor passive immunization could any definite relationship be established between the titers of circulating antibody (alpha-antistaphylolysin) and the intensity of cutaneous reactions to staphylotoxin. As is true with the Schick test, there was no fixed level at which individual animals passed from the negative to the positive group or vice versa. After injection of antitoxin, skin reactions remained negative at a time when the serum titers had returned to approximately their original levels.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）