Local Organ Hypersensitiveness. VII. Demonstration of Agglutinins in Tissues of the Rabbit Eye Following Immunization with Eb. Typhi Vaccine

Abstract

The injection of a foreign protein into the anterior chamber of the rabbit's eye results in a local sensitization of this organ. Weeks or months later when the eye has returned to a normal appearance the intravenous injection of the same protein produces a marked inflammation of the iris and conjunctiva. The opposite, control eye shows no reaction or only a slight hyperemia. 1 This local hypersensitivity has the characteristics of an antigen-antibody reaction.^{1, 2} The presence of antibodies in the tissues of the hypersensitive eye was not demonstrated, however, by the technique previously employed. 2

This paper reports further studies on the antibody content of the juices extracted from the tissues of the injected eye. By an alteration in the technique of extracting the tissues and the utilization of a particulate antigen which stimulates the production of agglutinins it has been possible to demonstrate the concentration of antibody in the tissues of an eye injected with typhoid vaccine.

A series of 12 adult albino rabbits were injected into the anterior chamber of the right eye with 0.1 or 0.15 cc. of New York City Board of Health typhoid vaccine which contained approximately 3 billion organisms per cc. The injection was given under cocaine anesthesia by the method already described. 1 The animals were sacrificed 4 to 102 days later by bleeding from the heart. Sixty to 120 cc. of blood was obtained. The anterior chamber fluids were removed and the palpebral and scleral conjunctiva together with the tissues from the anterior two-thirds of the eyeball from each eye were dissected out. The lens was expelled and the excess aqueous and vitreous humors were blotted off. The tissue juice from these fragments of tissues, consisting of conjunctiva, iris, sclera and cornea, was extracted with pressure by a method previously described.∗, 3 The fluids so obtained were tested for their agglutinin titer and the titers compared with those obtained in the serum and the aqueous humors. A series of 11 control animals was similarly tested. The treatment of the controls is indicated in Table I.