Some Quantitative Aspects of Passive Anaphylaxis in Pertussis-Vaccinated Mice

Abstract

Since pertussis vaccine markedly increases the susceptibility of mice to histamine, the effect of vaccine on passive anaphylaxis was studied. Mice were given intra-peritoneal vaccine, 3 days later intravenous varying amounts of anti-bovine-serum-albumin rabbit serum and after 2 more days intravenous 1 mg bovine-serum-albumin. Susceptibility to passive anaphylaxis was significantly increased. Response was graded in relation to amount of antibody and reproducible titrations of SD50 were obtained. SD50 values of 4.06 [plus or minus] .27 and 7.9 [plus or minus] 1.03 mg antibody N/kg were obtained for 2 sera that contained 0.816 and 2.52 mg antibody N/ml. Significant relation between SD50 and antibody content was not established. Similar SD50 values were obtained with mice vaccinated with 0.625-, 2.5-, and 10 x 109 bacteria. These amounts significantly affected degree of histamine susceptibility. No difference was obtained if antibody was given 24 or 6 hours before antigen instead of 48 hours. Anaphylactic response in non-vaccinated mice was poor and irregularly graded.