Method of preparing histamine sensitizing factor

Multiple discontinuity as a remarkable feature of the development of acellular pertussis vaccines

Development of the Japanese acellular pertussis vaccines (APVs) of the 1980s involved six procedural or conceptual features that were discontinuous with the then-accepted views of how pertussis vaccines should be made and tested. These discontinuities were: modification of the standard intracerebral mouse test for protective potency; use of culture supernates, rather than cells, of Bordetella pertussis as the feedstock for antigen purification; use of haemagglutination as a measure of protective antigen(s); identification of pertussis toxin (PT) as the main protective antigen; complete inactivation of the biological activities of PT by formalin; and the use of a single strain of B. pertussis. Several of these discontinuities had long precedence in the pertussis literature, but the original observations had not been incorporated into the mainstream of pertussis vaccinology and were therefore 'premature'. The APVs, purified from culture-supernates, emerged after a long period of unsuccessful research on the split-cell pertussis vaccines, i.e. those derived from the bacterial cells themselves. There is a brief discussion of why APVs have taken so long to obtain acceptance outside Japan, and of how the listed discontinuities may be explicable in terms of antigen processing by the immune system. General lessions, applicable to vaccines for other infectious diseases, may be learned from this account of how APVs have evolved from whole-cell pertussis vaccines.

Effect of Bordetella pertussis extract and vasoactive amines on vascular permeability

Vasxular permeability to Evans blue dye and 131-I-labeled human serum albumin was studied in normal mice and in mice treated with alkaline saline extracts (SE) from Bordetella pertussis cells. Skin sites inoculated intracutaneously with small doses of histamine, serotonin, or a combination of these 2 substances were more permeable in SE-treated mice than in normal animals. Intravenously administered catecholamines were able to reduce in varying degrees the vascular permeability induced by serotonin or by histamine in normal mice; in SE-treated mice the catecholamines were less effective. The relative effectiveness of intravenously administered catecholamines to reduce vascular permeability in normal or SE-treated mice was ranked as follows: isoproterenol greater than epinephrine greater than norepinephrine. When catecholamines were given concomitantly with histamine and serotonin in the skin test site, the permeability in both normal and SE-treated mice was again reduced or blocked, but isoproterenol was only weakly effective in this instance. Their relative effectiveness was epinephrine greater than norepinephrine greater than isoproterenol. The possible explanations for these results are discussed.

Independent segregation of the H-2 locus and the locus for responsiveness to histamine-sensitizing factor

The inheritance of responsiveness to histamine-sensitizing factor of pertussis bacilli was examined in (SWR/J x CBA/J)F(1) x CBA/J backcross mice. We found that about half of the backcross mice inherited this responsiveness in both sexes. There was no linkage between the inheritance of responsiveness to histamine-sensitizing factor and the H-2(q) locus from the sensitive SW/J progenitor.

Histamine-sensitizing factor, mouse-protective antigens, and other antigens of some members of the genus Bordetella

The three species of the genus Bordetella-B. pertussis, B. parapertussis, and B. bronchiseptica-have many antigens in common. Studies on representative strains of these species have shown that there are only a few specific antigens in each species. Whole-cell vaccines and extracts from B. pertussis contained specific mouse-protective antigen and a histamine-sensitizing factor. In addition, whole-cell vaccines and some saline extracts protected mice against intracranial challenge with B. bronchiseptica. Cells and a saline extract of B. parapertussis also protected against B. bronchiseptica but not against B. pertussis. Whole cells of B. bronchiseptica protected against B. bronchiseptica, but only one of three saline extracts protected against this challenge. Neither whole cells nor saline extracts from B. bronchiseptica protected against B. pertussis. The antigen in B. pertussis responsible for cross-protection against B. bronchiseptica was less resistant to heat than the protective antigen in B. bronchiseptica. Since histamine-sensitizing factor was not detected in B. bronchiseptica or B. parapertussis cells or extracts, this factor is not required to protect mice against B. bronchiseptica challenge. Whether B. pertussis vaccines protected against B. bronchiseptica by a nonspecific mechanism was not established, but it is clear that the specific antigen responsible for protection against B. pertussis was found only in B. pertussis and not in B. bronchiseptica or B. parapertussis.

The occurrence and properties of leukocytosis and lymphocytosis-stimulating material in the supernatant fluids of Bordetella pertussis cultures

1. Leukocytosis- and lymphocytosis-stimulating activity was present in fluid cultures of B. pertussis. The activity was found primarily in the culture supernatant fluid. 2. The sequential changes in the leukocyte response were similar to those previously observed following injection of intact bacteria into mice. 3. Activity was destroyed by heat and was diminished, but not abolished, by prolonged treatment with proteolytic enzymes. 4. A water-insoluble fraction of the culture supernatant fluid was isolated which contained virtually all of the activity. The specific activity was more than 100-fold greater than that of the intact bacteria, and injection of microgram quantities produced a response. 5. The distribution of histamine-sensitizing factor followed that of leukocytosis-stimulating activity. In contrast, mouse protective antigen was localized to the bacterial pellet.

Lymphocytosis and histamine sensitization of mice by fractions from Bordetella pertussis

Administration of Bordetella pertussis cell extracts induced in mice hypersensitivity to histamine, as well as pronounced leukocytosis and hypoglycemia. The leukocytosis was mainly caused by an increase in the small lymphocytes in the circulating blood, and it was most pronounced 3 to 4 days after injection of B. pertussis extracts. Rabbit antimouse lymphocyte serum produced a decrease in the lymphocyte count in normal mice, as well as in mice treated with B. pertussis extracts. This depression in lymphocytes was observed whether the antilymphocyte serum was given 1 day or 2 days after the administration of B. pertussis extracts. The increased histamine sensitivity and hypoglycemia of mice treated with B. pertussis extract were not affected by treatment with antilymphocyte serum, although a marked lymphopenia was present. These observations indicate that the three phenomena observed in pertussis-treated mice are independent of each other.

Histamine-sensitizing factors from microbial agents, with special reference to Bordetella pertussis

Images