Deficient resistance toCoccidioides immitisfollowing intravenous vaccination

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Abstract
Serologic studies showed that mice vaccinated intravenously with killed Coccidioides immitis spherules developed higher precipitin titers than mice vaccinated intramuscularly. Nevertheless, the intravenously-vaccinated animals were poorly protected against challenging doses of arthrospores whereas the intramuscularly-vaccinated mice were strongly resistant. Resistance induced intramuscularly was associated with cellular immunity manifested by high leukocytolytic and macrophage aggregation indices in the presence of spherule coccidioidin. Relatedly, these mice showed stronger delayed hypersensitivity reactions than did animals vaccinated intravenously. The latter route was non-efficacious in conferring strong leukocytolytic and macrophage aggregation properties on white blood cells. The cell-mediated immune reactions depended in part on heat-labile antigen(s). The data suggested that vaccination by the intravenous route stimulated humoral immunity to the detriment of cell-mediated immunity.