Humoral antibody and lymphocyte blastogenesis responses in BALB/c, C3H/HeJ and AKR/N mice following Ehrlichia risticii infection.

Three strains of mice, two susceptible to Ehrlichia risticii induced disease (BALB/c and C3H/HeJ) and one resistant (AKR/N), were evaluated for the development of humoral and cell mediated immune responses following infection with E risticii. The production of serum antibody was determined by indirect fluorescent antibody testing of sera from mice of each strain challenged with one of three different dose levels of E risticii. Antibody was assayed on days 7, 9, 12, 15 and 20 after inoculation. Cell mediated immune responses were evaluated by measuring the blastogenesis response of spleen cells from E risticii infected mice 28 days after inoculation. All three strains of mice at the high challenge level responded with the production of antibody by day 9 after inoculation. Overall, the antibody response occurred earlier and was of greater magnitude in the susceptible BALB/c and C3H/HeJ strains. A marked blastogenesis response occurred in splenocytes from E risticii infected mice of all three strains upon re-exposure to ehrlichial antigen. The findings of this study indicate that susceptibility to E risticii induced disease was not the result of deficient or delayed humoral immune responses and that E risticii infection induced the development of strong cell mediated immunity.