Intracerebral mouse protection test for pertussis vaccine. I. Apparent absence of humoral protective antibody under the usual test conditions

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Abstract
Passive immunization has been used to investigate the hypothesis that the immunity mechanism in the standard intracerebral mouse protection test for pertussis vaccine depends on the movement of humoral protective antibody across the blood–brain barrier on the fourth or fifth day after challenge. Using hyperimmune rabbit serum as a known source of protective antibody we found that (a) the intraperitoneal, intravenous, and subcutaneous routes of serum administration were equally efficient and (b) injecting the serum 3 days after challenge was much less effective than giving it 3 hours before challenge. This is contrary to expectations if antibody crosses the blood–brain barrier on the fourth or fifth day after challenge.Serum obtained from mice given a single protective dose of vaccine and bled 14 days later showed no trace of passive protective activity in doses as high as 1.0 ml. However, the serum of mice which had been given two or three spaced doses of vaccine contained easily detected protective activity. The challenge injection itself did not appear to act as a booster stimulus for antibody production in once-vaccinated mice.Thus while antibodies can protect mice against intracerebral infection with pertussis, it has not been possible, by passive immunization, to demonstrate participation of such antibodies in the mouse protection test as normally done.

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