[Tetracycline distribution in the body of animals and its effect on cellular interaction in the immune response].

Distribution of tetracyclines and their effect on interaction of the cells in the immune response were studied on pigs and rabbits non-vaccinated, immunized with formolvaccin against paratyphoid fever and experimentally infected with the paratyphoid causative agent. It was found that oxytetracycline and tetracycline administered parentally to the animals formed complexes with the proteins and especially with albumins and gamma-globulins, were rapidly adsorbed by the lymphocytes and consumed by the cells of the reticulo-macro- and micro-phage systems, epithelium of the kidney cannaculi and the cells of the liver parenchyma. Immunomorphological changes accompanied by formation of antibodies to the antibiotics were found in the bloodforming-lymphoid system after repeated parental administrations of the tetracyclines. The titers of the antibodies to oxytetracycline and tetracycline were high by the 5th--14th day after the antibiotic administration and the relatively high levels persisted for 1.5 months. The use of tetracyclines during the induction stage of immunogenesis had a pronounced inhibitory effect on development of immunity against the paratyphoid fever antigen. On the basis of the tetracycline capacity for binding with immunoglobulins and intensive adsorption by the lymphocytes it is possible to suppose that the inhibitory effect of the antibiotics on immunogenesis was connected with their blocking the receptors of T- and B-lymphocytes.