Affiliation:
1. Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73069
Abstract
The anti-mouse and anti-guinea pig antilymphocyte sera (ALS) prepared for this study were shown to contain cytoxic and leucoagglutinating antibodies, and were capable of producing severe lymphopenia in these animals. Guinea pigs treated weekly with ALS were more susceptible to development of fatal infection when inoculated with
Histoplasma capsulatum
. No fatalities occurred in guinea pigs infected with equal doses of
H. capsulatum
but treated with normal rabbit serum (NRS) or saline. The time necessary to reach 50% fatality in mice infected with
Cryptococcus neoformans
was greatly reduced by pretreatment with ALS in comparison with infected controls treated with NRS or saline. When low dosages were used (0.1
ld
50
), the effect was even more pronounced. Spleen homogenates from mice infected with equal dosages of
H. capsulatum
and treated with ALS or NRS were cultured. More than 150 times as many organisms were present in the spleens of the ALS-treated group. Similar results were obtained from culturing the lungs and liver. Delayed hypersensitive skin reactions were radically decreased or abrogated in
H. capsulatum
-infected guinea pigs inoculated intraperitoneally with ALS 12 hr before skin testing with histoplasmin. When ALS was given weekly, the influence on skin reactivity was less notable. Given intradermally, ALS was shown to inhibit the delayed reaction to histoplasmin within a radius of 40 mm.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Molecular Biology,Microbiology
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