Abstract
Temperature-sensitive mutant vaccines protect rats against Mycoplasma pulmonis infection. The role of the humoral or cellular immune response in resistance to mycoplasma infection was investigated by adoptivetransfer experiments. Spleen cells from Lewis rats vaccinated but not challenged with wild-type organisms (vaccinated) and spleen cells from rats vaccinated (or not) and challenged were effective in preventing syngeneic recipients from developing respiratory disease. There was also a significant reduction in the incidence and number of challenging organisms in the respiratorysystem. In contrast, sera from the same donors had no detectable effect on the number of mycoplasmas recovered or on lesion development in the respiratory tract. We conclude that cellular immunity rather than humoral immunity generated in vaccinated rats confers protection against subsequent infection.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 346-350 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Infection and immunity |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| State | Published - 1991 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Parasitology
- Microbiology
- Immunology
- Infectious Diseases