Retardation of Tuberculous Infection in Guinea Pigs Vaccinated with Killed Tubercle Bacilli as Shown by Cultural Method

Abstract

The effect of vaccination with killed tubercle bacilli upon the resistance of animals to tuberculous infection has been studied extensively. It has been repeatedly shown that guinea pigs can be sensitzed by this means to the intracutaneous injection of old tuberculin (Römer, 1 Bessau, 2 Zinsser, Ward and Jennings, 3 Petroff 4 ). Its influence upon the course of subsequent infection, however, has been studied with less conclusive results under widely varying experimental conditions. Römer, 1 Zinsser, Ward and Jennings, 3 Petroff, 4 and L. Lange 5 conclude that such treatment gives some protection; Dold, 6 and Seligmann and von Gutfeld, 7 that it gives none. B. Lange and his associates 8 believe that inoculation with heat-killed tubercle bacilli affords only a very slight protection, which can be as readily obtained with killed B. coli or a lipoid derived from animal tissue (“Helpin”). In the work thus far reported, the effect of immunization has been estimated by comparing in vaccinated and unvaccinated animals the duration of disease and the pathological changes observed at autopsy.

Tubercle bacilli injected into the tissues of guinea pigs penetrate the lymph ducts and cause formation of tubercles in the nearest lymph nodes, and the rate of spread of the bacteria in the regional lymphatic system is an important factor in the progress of the disease. Opie 9 has shown that soluble antigens such as crystalline egg albumin and horse serum, spread rapidly from the site of injection and enter the blood stream in normal animals, but that when rabbits have been immunized by repeated injections these antigens are fixed at the site of the acute local inflammation (Arthus phenomenon). Similarly Willis 10 has shown a delay in the dissemination of tubercle bacilli along the lymphatics draining the site of injection in guinea pigs immunized with living avirulent tubercle bacilli.