Abstract
The occurrence of type-specific skin reactions to carbohydrates in patients with Staphylococcus infections 1 presented the opportunity for studying experimentally hypersensitiveness to Staphylococcus and its constituents. The recent demonstration that this organism is separable into two distinct immunological types, 2 A and B, dependent upon the presence of chemically and serologically different polysaccharides, has made it possible to consider the influence of type- and species-specificity on the reactions of increased tissue sensitivity. Both monkeys and rabbits were studied to observe evidence of hypersensitiveness to Staphylococcus and its derivatives.
Monkeys (M. rhesus) were given injections of Type A or Type B organisms. In one experiment 4 monkeys were given 9 injections intracutaneously of heat-killed bacteria, repeated at weekly intervals. The injections caused only small nodules at the site of inoculation, and the successive reactions following the repeated inoculations were of approximately the same size and severity. In a second experiment, 4 monkeys were inoculated with live bacteria into a subcutaneous agar focus. This was repeated at 3 different times after the effects of the succeeding inoculation had healed completely. The animals in both experiments were skin tested to Type A and B carbohydrates at different periods during the course of observation, but at no time was skin reactivity elicited despite the employment of graded dilutions of carbohydrate. At the termination of the experiment skin tests to carbohydrates were again repeated using 0.2 cc. quantities of dilutions of 1:10,000, 1:25,000 and 1:50,000. In one animal, injected preliminarily with live Type A Staphylococcus by subcutaneous agar focus, skin reactions were observed to dilutions of specific carbohydrate of 1:10,000 and 1:25,000 but not to 1:50,000. The reactions appeared within 5 to 10 minutes and they were of the wheal and erythema variety.
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