Measurements of the Acquired Resistance of Rats and Mice to Plasmodium berghei Infections

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Abstract
The mechanisms of acquired immunity of rats and mice to Plasmodium berghei differ from that of rats to Trypanosoma lewisi and mice to Trypanosoma cruzi. Animals immunized against trypanosomes do not allow parasites inoculated intraperioneally to pass into the blood as do normal animals. On the other hand, animals immunized against P. berghei allow parasites to pass from peritoneal cavity to blood as readily as do normal rats or mice. The passage of P. berghei cannot be attributed to a lesser degree of acquired immunity or to the intracellular nature of the parasites. Judging from parasitemia resulting from P. berghei inoculations, rats and mice are highly immune after recent recovery from infection, or hyperimmunizing infections, but lose a considerable degree of their acquired immunity after 3 or 4 months in spite of persisting latent infection. These experiments indicate that mice and rats develop similar degrees of acquired immunity to P. berghei and that the relatively high degree of susceptibility of mice to this parasite is not attributable to the inability of mice to become immunized.

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