結核免疫における特異性の研究

Abstract

The present paper describes the study on the virulence of various strains of unclassified mycobacteria and the comparison of protective effects for infection with human Mycobacterium tuberculosis between those strains and BCG.1. Unclassified strains employed here were virulent for mice in the order of photochromogen P-16, non-photochromogen Ueda, scotochromogen Watanabe and non-photochromogen 121326.2. When mice immunized with the above strains and BCG were challenged with M tuberculosis strain Kurono, the multiplication in the lung was apparently inhibited only in the mice immunized with BCG. However, the multiplication in the spleen was inhibited also in the groups of mice immunized with unclassified mycobacteria to the same extent as in the BCG-immunized ice. No difference in the degree of inhibition was noted between the mice immunized with strain Ueda and those immunized with strain Watanabe.3. When the survival time of the challenged mice was compared, the mice immunized with strain Ueda showed a protective effect comparable to that by BCG immunization. The immunization with strain P-16 also conferred a protection, though weaker than that by BCG, but almost no effects were obtained by the immunization with strains Watanabe and 121326.4. There was a clear parallelism between the in vivo multiplication of strains of unclassified mycobacteria and pathological findings in organs caused by them.5. The mechanism of immunity conferred by unclassified mycobacteria was discussed and a possibility of its difference from the immunity by BCG has suggested.