Specificity of the clearance phenomenon in the lungs of pertussis-immunized mice following intratracheal administration of radioiodinated pertussis vaccine.

Abstract

In mice which were immunized with various immunizing agents 6 and 20 days prior to challenge, it was found that stimulation of lung clearance of intratracheally administered radioiodinated pertussis vaccine was observed chiefly in those mice which had received vaccine prepared from any of the three members of the genus Bordetella. The most marked effect occurred in the pertussis-immunized animals. In pertussis-immunized mice which were challenged intratracheally with heterologous radioiodinated antigens, the most significant increases in clearance were obtained in those animals receiving labeled Bordetella vaccines. When mice immunized with the various antigens were challenged by their labeled homologous antigens, again the most significant clearance stimulations occurred in the mice immunized and challenged with the Bordetella preparations. Clearance studies with mice immunized and/or challenged with a vaccine prepared from phase IV pertussis organisms would support a view that somatic antigens may stimulate lung clearance in mice immunized 6 days prior to challenge whereas the surface antigens may provoke a slower-developing and longer-lasting immunity that is responsible for the faster clearance observed 20 days after immunization.