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The cellular and humoral immune responses of mice inoculated with rabies virus and treated with the Bacillus of Calmette-Guérin, Avridine and Propionibacterium acnes were evaluated in this paper. There was a higher percentage of surviving mice in groups submitted to P. acnes treatment. Lower levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) were found in infected mice. The intra-pad inoculation test (IPI) was not effective to detect cellular immune response, contrary to the results found in MIF reaction. The survival of mice did not present correlation with the levels of antirabies serum neutralizing (SN) antibodies titers, IFN-gamma concentration and MIF response.

To determine the changes in patterns of 17 beta-estradiol and progesterone levels underlying abnormal cycles in bitches immunized with solubilized crude porcine zonae pellucidae (cPZP), to attempt to circumvent these problems by immunizing with a purified zona fraction (pPZP), and to test the effectiveness of different adjuvants, bitches were immunized with cPZP or pPZP 2-6 times with no adjuvant, Freund's adjuvant, alum adjuvant, or the adjuvant CP-20,961. The bitch immunized without adjuvant had a low titer with a normal cycle and fertility. Immunization with cPZP and adjuvant produced moderate to high titers of antizona antibodies and infertility. Bitches with high titers experienced abnormal estrous cycles. Estradiol rose during proestrus, but instead of falling sharply in early estrus as in controls, it remained elevated. Progesterone did not rise. The moderate-titered bitches had normal cycles and steroid patterns. Bitches immunized with pPZP had moderate titers. Cycles were normal after 3 injections, but after 6 injections one bitch had an abnormal cycle. One pPZP-immunized bitch remained fertile but the others were infertile. Alum was the mildest adjuvant, causing no injection site lesions, but the highest titers occurred with Freund's and CP-20,961 adjuvants. All three adjuvants induced titers sufficient to inhibit fertility. Infertility in bitches immunized with PZP may be due to prevention of zona penetration, because their antisera inhibited zona penetration of oocytes by spermatozoa in vitro. However, alterations in ovarian function preventing ovulation and luteinization could be involved in high-titered bitches.

A solution of an apparently nonimmunogenic synthetic compound, N,N-dioctadecyl-N',N'-bis(2-hydroxyethyl) propanediamine (CP-20961), suspended in mineral oil or olive oil (50 mg/ml), induced an acute, as well as a chronic, polyarthritis when single intradermal injections (0.2 ml) were made in the tail or hindpaw of Lewis rats. The polyarthritis was morphologically almost indistinguishable from classic adjuvant arthritis induced by Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA), a disease generally thought to be the result of a delayed hypersensitivity reaction to a constituent(s) of the injected tubercle bacilli. The disease induced by CP-20961 and that induced by Freund's complete adjuvant followed the same time course and almost identical pattern of development of clinical and histopathologic features. Like the classic adjuvant arthritis, CP-20961 induced arthritis is suppressed by an immunosuppressive agent (cyclophosphamide) or an antiinflammatory drug (phenylbutazone). The alkyldiamine (CP-20961) was found to be a potent adjuvant; a dispersion or a solution of the compound in mineral oil administered intraperitoneally enhanced the development of both the cell-mediated and the humoral immune responses to EL4 cells in the rat. These findings suggest that the immunogen responsible for the development of adjuvant arthritis is endogensou, e.g., a constituent of host tissue, a viral protein, or some complex of the two.