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Early Antibody Response in Mice to Either Infection or Immunization with Salmonella typhimurium

Department of Bacteriology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

ABSTRACT

After immunization with either live or heat-killed Salmonella typhimurium, mice responded with an extremely rapid production of bactericidal antibody which was correlated with the appearance of immunity to a heavy challenge dose (100 LD₅₀) of the virulent bacteria. Inactivation of sera with mercaptoethanol along with Sephadex fractionation indicated that the observed bactericidal activity was associated with a macroglobulin which was completely mercaptoethanol-sensitive. The unexpected finding, that a heat-killed vaccine gave excellent protection from a challenge dose which killed all unimmunized control mice, seriously challenges the theory attributing immunity against typhoid infection entirely to a cellular host factor produced only in response to a live vaccine.