Prenatal Immunization of the Lamb to Brucella: Dissociation of Immunocompetence and Reactivity

[摘要] Many animal species do not respond markedly to the somatic antigens of Brucella or Salmonella until several weeks of age (1). Smith (2) found that only 1 of 58 human infants receiving typhoid vaccine at 1 to 30 days of age produced agglutinins against somatic antigen, although 46 of the 58 responded to the less complex flagella antigen. Passive transfer of antibody has been shown to inhibit immunization (3, 4), and maternal antibody may negate immune response in the neonate. Other evidence suggests that late maturation of immunocompetence is responsible for the non-reactivity toward the somatic antigens of Gram-negative bacteria. Silverstein and coworkers (5) have found that although the fetal lamb responded fully to several types of antigen at various times during fetal life, it did not produce antibody to Salmonella typhosa at any time in utero or by 6 weeks of age.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）