SPECIFIC CYTOTOXIC ACTION OF TUBERCULIN - STUDIES ON TISSUES OF TUBERCULOUS RABBITS IN WHICH NEGATIVE CUTANEOUS REACTIONS TO TUBERCULIN HAVE DEVELOPED

Abstract

This article, following the demonstration of Rich and Lewis that the cells of sensitized animals are in tissue culture similarly sensitized, studies in tissue cultures the cells of animals (rabbits) which became desensitized cutaneously to tuberculin in the terminal phases of progressive tuberculosis. Another group of animals was studied in which the failure to react cutaneously to tuberculin was attributed to intercurrent infections, the animals having only a mild degree of tuberculosis. Some degree of sensitization of the cells in tissue cultures was observed in all cases but one, in which the results were ambiguous, showing that loss of cutaneous sensitivity did not indicate a general loss of cellular hypersensitivity. Splenic fragments were used as the source of the cultivated cells.