Diphtheria antitoxin formation in the horse at site of injection of toxoid and adjuvants.

Abstract

Numerous attempts have been made to demonstrate the formation of antibodies at the site of injection of antigen in the skin or subcutaneous tissue. The literature on this subject has been reviewed by Burnet and Fenner(1) and also by Oakley and his associates(2). Employing alum precipitated diphtheria or tetanus toxoids the latter authors found that after a single secondary injection of these antigens into the skin, fat or voluntary muscle of rabbits or guinea pigs, specific antitoxin may be formed at the site of the deposition of the toxoids. However, the local formation of antitoxin was not demonstrable in a group of seven horses given a single secondary intracutaneous injection of alum precipitated diphtheria or tetanus toxoids. Evidence for the formation of antibodies in the rabbit at the site of intracutaneous injection of killed tubercle bacilli in paraffin oil was obtained by Westwater(3). He found antibodies fixing complement in the presence of tubercle bacilli in the extracts of the cutaneous nodu...