Correlations between plasma protein fractions, antibody titers, and the passive transfer of delayed and immediate cutaneous reactivity to tuberculin PPD and tuberculopolysaccharides

GUINEA PIGS SENSITIZED WITH TUBERCLE BACILLI DEMONSTRATE A DUAL ALLERGIC RESPONSE MEDIATED BY TWO CHEMICALLY DISTINCT PLASMA FRACTIONS: 1. Antibody to tuberculopolysaccharide is located exclusively in fraction II (gamma globulin). This fraction will passively transfer systemic anaphylaxis and urticarial type skin reactivity to tuberculopolysaccharide, and contains the Middlebrook-Dubos antibody. 2. Antibody to tuberculoprotein is contained exclusively in a new plasma fraction called fraction IV-10. By Cohn's Method X, fraction IV-10 is a part of fraction IV (alpha globulin) and to a lesser extent V (albumin). This fraction will passively transfer to normal guinea pigs a delayed type skin sensitivity to tuberculin PPD which is maximal between 18 and 30 hours, and it contains the Boyden antibody. When fractions II and IV-10 are combined, the antibody to tuberculopolysaccharide inhibits the passive transfer of delayed type reactivity. Combination of these two fractions does not alter their separate in vitro hemagglutinating properties. Adsorption of IV-10 with Boyden sensitized cells removes its ability to transfer delayed type tuberculin sensitivity. Adsorption of II with Middlebrook-Dubos-sensitized cells removes its capacity to effect passive transfer of immediate type reactivity to tuberculopolysaccharides.

Studies on tuberculin fever. I. The mechanism of fever in tuberculin hypersensitivity

Evidence has been presented that the fever elicited by intravenous administration of old tuberculin (O.T.) in BCG-infected rabbits is a specific property of this hypersensitivity system and is probably not due to contamination of tuberculin with bacterial endotoxins. Daily injections of O.T. in sensitized animals resulted in a rapid tolerance to its pyrogenic effect. Tuberculin tolerance can be differentiated from that occurring with endotoxins and was invariably associated with the development of a negative skin test. The mechanism of this tolerance would thus appear to be desensitization. A circulating pyrogen found during tuberculin fever was indistinguishable in its biologic effects from endogenous pyrogens obtained in several other types of experimental fever. This material produced fevers in normal recipients and therefore may be clearly differentiated from O.T. itself which was pyrogenic only to sensitized animals. Since the titer of serum pyrogen was directly proportional to the degree of fever induced by injection of O.T. in the donor animals, a causal relation is suggested. On the basis of these findings, it is postulated that tuberculin fever is due to a circulating endogenous pyrogen released by a specific action of O.T. on sensitized cells of the host.

Inhibition of tuberculin skin hypersensitivity in guinea pigs by injection of tuberculin and intact tubercle bacilli during fetal life

Female guinea pigs were subjected to laparotomy at different stages of pregnancy, and their fetuses injected through the uterine walls with one of the following preparations: Old Tuberculin, tubercle bacilli of the BCG strain killed by heat or exposure to phenol, and living BCG. A large number of the animals injected in utero with Old Tuberculin failed to develop skin hypersensitivity to P.P.D. following vaccination with 200 or 800 γ phenol-killed tubercle bacilli (BCG) in early adulthood. Normal control animals were sensitized by vaccination with such quantities of phenolized BCG. The failure of animals which had been injected with Old Tuberculin in fetal life to respond hypersensitively to P.P.D. after adult vaccination with tubercle bacilli is ascribed to their acquisition of a state of immunological tolerance to tuberculoprotein (tuberculin tolerance). Fetal injection with killed BCG conferred a state of tolerance on a few of the animals, and rendered others tuberculin-sensitive. Fetal injection with living BCG sensitized most of the animals to tuberculin, even when fetal exposure was as early as 46 days before birth, and induced tolerance in none. Fetuses of the same litter, injected simultaneously with identical inocula, often responded differently, some becoming tolerant to tuberculin, others developing hypersensitivity, and still others remaining immunologically unaffected, becoming neither sensitive nor tolerant. The state of tuberculin tolerance induced in these experiments was limited. When tolerant animals were revaccinated with living BCG several weeks after vaccination with phenol-killed bacilli, they developed as high a degree of tuberculin skin sensitivity as the originally non-tolerant animals.

Tuberculin hypersensitivity: studies with radioactive antigen and mononuclear cells

The type and fate of mononuclear cells of guinea pigs hypersensitive to tuberculin were studied by means of purified protein derivative labeled with I(125) and mononuclear cells labeled with tritiated thymidine. Purified protein derivative labeled with I(125) was taken up in vitro by lymphocytes and neutrophils from animals that were either sensitive or nonsensitive to tuberculin, but it was bound more frequently by the cells of sensitive animals. Passive transfer of tuberculin hypersensitivity by means of lymphocytes labeled with tritiated thymidine indicated that significant numbers of radioactive cells migrated to the site where the skin was tested with purified protein derivative only when the test was made immediately after transfusion. Although skin reactions from tests made with purified protein derivative 24 hours after transfusion were comparable to those from tests made immediately, the number of labeled cells at the sites of the later tests was not consistently larger than it was in controls (Histoplasmin reactions). Thus transfused tuberculin-sensitive cells are neither always attracted to the sites of the test with purified protein derivative nor are they required in large numbers at the site for a positive reaction to develop.

Radioautographic study of cellular mechanisms in delayed hypersensitivity. I. Delayed reactions to tuberculin and purified proteins in the rat and guinea-pig

In delayed skin reactions to PPD and BSA in the rat and to old tuberculin and diphtheria toxoid in the guinea-pig, intravenous injection of tritium-labelled thymidine shortly before skin testing produced labelling of a high proportion of the cells entering the perivascular infiltrates 12–18 hours later. Administration of thymidine at various times after skin testing gave immediate labelling of 5–10 per cent of cells in the infiltrates. It was concluded that the majority of the cells in the infiltrates are haematogenous, that they are synthesizing DNA before entering the lesion, and that many do so in the lesion itself. The principal cell type labelled in both experiments resembled a medium-sized lymphocyte of the lymphoid tissues or large lymphocyte of the blood. There was evidence that over several hours many of these became typical histiocytes. In non-specific reactions, a similar pattern of labelling was observed but the total number of infiltrating cells was very small.