The influence of some cephalosporins on immunological response.

The effect of cefotaxime and cephradine on the activity of some immune mechanisms was investigated in mice. It was found that cefotaxime in therapeutic doses did not affect the humoral and cellular immune response against sheep erythrocytes, whereas cephradine suppressed the humoral response in doses corresponding to those used for the treatment of patients. The response in vitro of mouse spleen lymphocytes to PHA was suppressed by both cephalosporins; however this occurred at therapeutic concentrations only in the case of cephradine. Neither cephalosporin affected the phagocytic and chemotactic activity of mouse peritoneal macrophages and rabbit microphages.