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Mechanisms of protection against virulentYersinia pestis infection without participation of humoral antibody: H-2 restriction in athymic mouse model

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Abstract

Athymic mice, deficient in mature T-lymphocytes, were killed when subcutaneously challenged with 100 organisms of a highly virulent strain ofYersinia pestis. None of the methods for activating the macrophages protected the animals from death; however, the survival time of the mice primed withYersinia pseudotuberculosis containing VW antigen 14 days before the challenge was significantly prolonged. Neither IgM nor IgG specific forY. pestis was detectable in these mice 14 days after priming. The primed athymic mice given the spleen cells of the twice-primed thymus-bearing syngeneic or semiallogeneic mice resisted the challenge with virulentY. pestis. On the basis of these results, the protective activity of the immune T-cells againstY. pestis infection assayed in an adoptive transfer system resides in cell-mediated immunity with H-2 restriction.

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  1. First Department of Bacteriology, National Institute of Health, 10-35, Kamiosaki 2-chome, Shinagawa-ku, 141, Tokyo, Japan

    Akira Wake & Yuki Sutoh

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  1. Akira Wake
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  2. Yuki Sutoh
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Wake, A., Sutoh, Y. Mechanisms of protection against virulentYersinia pestis infection without participation of humoral antibody: H-2 restriction in athymic mouse model. Current Microbiology 8, 79–84 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01566962

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01566962

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