Runt Diseases Induced by Non-Living Bacterial Antigens

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Abstract
Summary: Neonatal mice injected repeatedly with a variety of sterile bacterial vaccine exhibit a form of runt disease similar in most respects to classic graft-vs.-host runting. Fractionation of these organisms has suggested that the responsible antigens are polysaccharide or polysaccharide-nucleic acid complexes. Vaccine-runted mice showed a characteristic depression of circulating lymphocytes with a marked alteration and depletion of lymphocytopoiesis in the spleen and thymus. Immunoelectrophoretic analysis of plasma from vaccine-runted animals showed no striking alterations although a characteristic smearing of the IgM region was consistently observed. Runted mice were shown to respond less well to immunization with sheep erythrocytes than normal animals but no change in their ability to reject skin homografts could be demonstrated.