Immune processes in the course of infection with dysentery bacilli. IV. Transfer of immunity by means of fractions isolated from sera of mice immunized with dysentery bacilli.

Studies in mice on the protective activity of sera fractions isolated from immune sera, showed that viable as well as killed dysentery bacilli evoke in mice immunity, which can be transferred to other mice by serum or globulin fractions isolated from the serum. It was shown that protective activity is localized in the globulin fraction of IgM and IgG class. No correlation between the titers of specific antibodies and protective activity of components of the globulin fractions was found. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the globulin fraction isolated from the serum of normal mice is capable to transfer the immunity, whereas whole serum does not exhibit any protective activity. Possible mechanism of the immunity caused by transfer of the serum fractions into lethally infected-recipients was presented in the discussion.