Protective Immunity against Tetrathyridia of Mesocestoides corti by Passive Transfer of Serum in Mice

Abstract

Incubation of tetrathyridia in serum collected from laboratory mice which had been infected with tetrathyridia of M. corti for 3 months resulted in the formation of a precipitate around the worm. Mice were infected with 100 tetrathyridia orally or by intraperitoneal injection, and subsequently were given an intraperitoneal injection of serum. Autopsy later revealed greatly reduced numbers of larvae in mice receiving immune serum as compared to those receiving saline or normal serum. Passive transfer of immunity against a larval tapeworm was first demonstrated by Miller and Gardiner (1932) using the rat metacestode, Hydatigera taeniaeformis. Passive transfer of immunity against larval tapeworms has also been successfully demonstrated using Taenia pisiformis, T. hydatigera, T. ovis, and Hymenolepis nana (for references see Weinmann, 1970). Di Conza (1969) demonstrated the protective action of passively transferred serum taken from infected mice against the larval stage of H. nana which had been injected subcutaneously in mice. Silverman (1955) showed that a precipitate formed around the activated embryos of T. saginata and T. pisiformis incubated in vitro in immune serum. Similarly, Mueller (1961) observed precipitate formation around spargana of Spirometra mansonoides incubated in serum from infected mice. Heyneman and Welsh (1959) observed a precipitate around eggs and adults of H. nana incubated in serum taken from mice which had been immunized with a somatic antigen of H. nana. This paper presents the results of experiments using serum taken from mice infected with tetrathyridia of Mesocestoides corti for 3 months. MATERIALS AND METHODS