Immunization against urinary tract infection with a multi-valent vaginal vaccine.

Systemic and local immune responses are thought to play an important role in susceptibility to urinary tract infection. In an attempt to boost local immunity, a vaccine was administered parenterally or vaginally to two mouse strains. Both routes of immunization increased the number of splenic antibody-forming cells against the bacterial strains in the vaccine. Following vaginal or parenteral immunization and subsequent induction of cystitis with live E. coli, immunized animals had fewer viable bladder E. coli than non-immunized animals.