Delayed Hypersensitivity in Murine Salmonellosis: Specificity of Footpad Reaction in Mice Infected with Rough Mutants ofSalmonella typhimurium

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Abstract
Delayed type (footpad) hypersensitivity (DTH) in BALB/c mice immunized with rough mutant strains of S. typhimurium LT2 was examined. Injection of live organisms of an Rb mutant TV148 strain induced DTH in mice; injection of the heat-killed organisms did not. The mice immunized with live organisms of the Ra, Rb, Rc, Rd and Re mutant strains showed positive footpad reactions to the heat-killed cell antigen of LT2 (wild type) strain. The mice immunized with the Rb mutant strain also showed positive footpad swellings in response to heat-killed cell antigens of S. paratyphi A, S. paratyphi B, S. typhi, S. enteritidis and S. cholerae-suis. Positive reactions to antigens of Escherichia coli and Shigella flexneri were seen in the TV148-immunized mice; the mice did not respond to heat-killed organisms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Staphylococcus aureus. The cross-reactive footpad reaction to E. coli could be transferred adoptively with T cells prepared from the spleens of TV148-immunized mice into syngeneic recipients. Apparently, the cross-reactive DTH antigen(s) is widely distributed among related organisms such as Shigella and Escherichia.