Cholera Toxin Neutralization and Some Cellular Sites of Immune Globulin Formation in Cercopithecus aethiops

Abstract

As a rule, Vibrio cholerae does not enter the intestinal tissues and the blood stream. Cholera is a disease due to the toxins of the causative vibrio which are liberated in the lumen of the gut. The toxins have not yet been completely defined but the most important of them seem to be those of group 2 of Burrows¹. These produce a cholera-like syndrome when injected into the upper part of the small intestine of infant rabbits or into the ligated intestinal loop of adult rabbits^1,2. The serological responses of vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) to crude cholera toxin prepared according to Oza and Dutta³ and Burrows et al.², phenolized cholera vaccine, and V. cholerae lipopolysaccharide have been investigated by our group^4,5. It was found that the serum immune globulin G is the most important carrier of the V. cholerae toxicity neutralizing factor(s) in the circulating blood. The purpose of these experiments was to establish the antibody producing capability of mesenteric lymph gland and spleen cells, as well as to investigate the relationship of serum Ig-bound antibodies to the toxin neutralizing capability of Ig in the secretions and excretions of the intestinal tract.