CHANGES IN HUMORAL IMMUNITY OCCURRING DURING THE EARLY STAGES OF EXPERIMENTAL PNEUMOCOCCUS INFECTION

A study was made of the changes in humoral immunity occurring during the early phases of experimental pneumococcus infection in the dog and cat. The methods devised by Robertson and Sia were employed to demonstrate the presence of anti-pneumococcus properties in the serum of animals naturally resistant to this micro-organism. It was found that with a generalized and overwhelming infection accompanied by early blood invasion, there was a prompt and rapid decrease in the concentration of natural humoral immune bodies which frequently disappeared entirely by the time of death. This same early diminution of humoral immune substances, opsonins, agglutinins, and pneumococcidal-promoting bodies was observed in animals that survived a moderately severe generalized infection but the concentration of immune bodies rose again with the onset of recovery. The decrease in concentration of humoral immune substances during a severe generalized infection appeared to be due to the combination of "S" substance with the normal immune bodies. When the pneumococcus infection was more localized as in the case of true lobar pneumonia a quite different sequence of events was observed to occur. Several animals, in which extensive lobar pneumonia was produced, showed the presence in quantity of humoral immune bodies in the blood throughout the course of an infection terminating fatally. These findings suggest that after the inception of pneumococcus infection in the dog and cat the chief function of natural anti-pneurnococcus substances in the blood is to limit or prevent blood invasion. When pneumococcic infection is localized these circulating antibodies appear to have little effect either in preventing the spread of the process or determining the outcome of the disease.