Abstract
The effect of the secondary infection with Toxoplasma gondii on antibody responses to unrelated antigens was examined in mice. A reinfection with 5 X 10(3) organisms did not affect either primary anti-sheep erythrocyte antibody responses, or anti-dinitrophenol antibody responses to dinitrophenylated keyhole limpet hemocyanin. With an increase of the reinfection dose to 2.5 X 10(4) organisms, suppression of anti-sheep erythrocyte antibody responses was induced. By contrast, in the primary infection, the anti-sheep erythrocyte and anti-dinitrophenol antibody responses were markedly suppressed by an injection with only 5 X 10(2) or 1 X 10(3) T. gondii organisms. Plastic-adherent cells of spleens from mice reinfected with 2.5 X 10(4) organisms showed a strong suppressor activity in an in vitro primary anti-sheep erythrocyte antibody response system. These results demonstrate that a nonspecific suppression of antibody responses is provoked by a secondary T. gondii infection, only when mice receive a large number of organisms in the reinfection, and the suppressed antibody responses seem to be caused by an activation of suppressor cells that adhere to plastic.
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