Local and Systemic Anaphylaxis in the Pertussis-inoculated Mouse

Abstract

IT is now well known that mice injected with Bordetella pertussis vaccine plus an antigen will produce more antibodies to that antigen than mice injected with antigen alone^1,2. Such mice also develop an enhanced susceptibility to anaphylactic shock^1–3. However, the level of circulating antibodies in an animal as measured by agglutination, hæmagglutination, or precipitin techniques appears to be unrelated to the susceptibility of that animal to systemic anaphylaxis^1,2,4. The following experiment indicates that the incidence of active cutaneous anaphylaxis in the pertussis-inoculated mouse parallels the incidence of systemic anaphylaxis. Mice were sensitized with 5 billion B. pertussis organisms and 1 mg of bovine serum albumin. On the seventh day after sensitization, 10 µg bovine serum albumin in 0.05 ml. of saline and 0.05 ml. of saline were injected into separate areas of the skin of the back. Fifteen min later, 0.25 ml. of 0.5 per cent Evans blue dye was injected into a lateral tail vein. Thirty min after the dye, the animals were challenged intraperitoneally with 2 mg of bovine serum albumin. Of 50 mice challenged in this manner, 32 died of anaphylaxis within 30 min. The survivors were classified as having symptoms of anaphylaxis or as having no symptoms and were killed 30 min after challenge. All animals were then tested for active cutaneous anaphylaxis by inspecting the inner side of the skin of the back for accumulation of dye at the site of antigen injection.