Studies on the Cellular Transfer of Tuberculin Sensitivity in the Guinea Pig

[摘要] The following evidence is presented to show that tuberculin sensitivity passively induced in normal guinea pigs by means of peritoneal exudate cells from donors sensitized with BCG in Freund's adjuvants is not preceded by a latent period. In animals given cells intravenously and tested at the same time by the intradermal, intracorneal, or intraperitoneal injection of tuberculin, typical local or systemic reactions are produced. The same is true when cells and tuberculin are mixed and injected into the skin, or when cells are administered by the intraperitoneal route and the recipients are simultaneously tested by systemic tuberculin injection. Typical local reactions can also be induced by “reverse transfer”, i.e. , by injecting cells intravenously into animals skin-tested 3 to 24 hours earlier. By contrast, cutaneous reactivity in guinea pigs which have received cells intraperitoneally is not established until about 20 hours after cell transfer.Minimal and maximal skin reactivity are induced, under the conditions of these experiments, by the intravenous injection of about 0.05 and 0.3 ml moist packed cells, respectively. In animals given equivalent amounts of cells intravenously, the reactions to multiple intradermal test doses of tuberculin are markedly weaker than the reaction to a single dose, a phenomenon that has been previously described by others in passively induced Arthus reactivity.In corroboration of the results reported by other workers, it has been observed that transferred tuberculin sensitivity does not last longer than a few days and that, after freezing or heating, cells lose their capacity for passive sensitization.The bearing of these findings on the possible mechanism of the tuberculin reaction is discussed, and it is suggested that the response of passively sensitized animals is brought about by a direct interaction between tuberculin and transferred cells.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）