Immunogenicity of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis and the effect of adjuvants in mice

Abstract

Intraperitoneal inoculation of CF1 mice with 100 μg, 200 μg, or 300 μg whole cell (WC) or 250 μg, 500 μg, or 1000 μg cell wall (CW) of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis induced varying degrees of protection after intravenous challenge of immunity with 7·2 × 10 4 CFU of C. pseudotuberculosis. Generally, the degree of protection increased with the dose of WC or CW. However, intraperitoneal inoculation of mice with 100 μg, 200 μg, or 300 μg heat-killed Mycobacterium bovis BCG; 50 μg, 150 μg, or 300 μg of either muramyl dipeptide (MDP) or trehalose dimycolate (TDM); or 350 μg, 700 μg or 1400 μg Corynebacterium parvum did not induce resistance to intravenous inoculation of 7·4 × 10 4 CFU of C. pseudotuberculosis. The protection induced by 500 μg CW was enhanced by adding 100 μg BCG, 150 μg MDP, or 350 μg C. parvum but protection induced in mice by 300 μg of WC was not enhanced by adding any adjuvants.