Factors affecting the acquisition of resistance against Schistosoma mansoni in the mouse. IV. The inability of T-cell-deprived mice to resist re-infection, and other in vivo studies on the mechanisms of resistance

Abstract

SUMMARYCBA mice deprived of their T-cells by means of thymectomy and administration of rabbit anti-mouse thymocyte serum before a primary infection of Schistosoma mansoni, failed to resist re-infection to the same extent as immunologically intact controls. However, little difference was made to the degree of resistance to re-infection acquired by thymectomized S. mansoni-infected mice when the anti-thymocyte serum was administered after the primary infection and just before the challenge. Hydrocortisone acetate, when administered to primarily infected mice just before reinfection appeared to reduce the degree of acquired resistance, but the drug also had a schistosomicidal effect on the challenge-derived organisms. An attempt to specifically suppress the acquisition of resistance against S. mansoni by administering serum from homologously infected, resistant donors before and during the course of a primary infection failed, and partial depletion of complement activity with cobra venom factor that was administered just before challenge also failed to affect resistance. Serum obtained from mice with chronic S. mansoni infections and injected intradermally at the site of subsequent administration of a homologous percutaneous challenge infection failed to markedly inhibit maturation of the challenge in the recipient. Recipients of 3 ml of serum from heavily infected donors were also not significantly more resistant to challenge than untreated controls. However, isolated skin from heavily infected mice allowed fewer cercariae to penetrate and emerge transformed as schistosomula than did isolated skin from uninfected controls.