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Intravenous inoculation of killed Bordetella pertussis vaccine into BALB/c, CBA, C57Bl/6 mice or (CBA x C57Bl/6) F2 hybrids 1 day or 3 days before sublethal irradiation (5.5 Gy) was shown to sharply increase the endogenous colony formation in the spleen 9 days after irradiation. Moreover, the CFUs content of the spleen and bone marrow was also enhanced 1 and 3 days after vaccination of the mice with 10(10) cells B. pertussis as revealed by the exocolonization technique (Till and McCulloch). Thus, a single injection of B. pertussis vaccine hastened the hematopoietic recovery after irradiation.

Vaccine strain 305 of B. pertussis in a dose of 10(8)-10(11) cells was shown to be mitogenic for splenocytes of BALB/c mice and nude mice. When added in a dose of 10(10) B. pertussis exerted a more pronounced mitogenic effect than phytohemagglutinin P, which was less powerful, however, than that of Con A, B. pertussis caused a greater stimulation of DNA synthesis in lymphocytes than B mitogens whose action depended on the differentiation stages of B lymphocytes. This is likely to hint towards a possible action of B. pertussis on immature B cells and/or their precursors. The cells of T lineage (T1 cells and/or T precursors) can also be involved.

The progency of C57BL/6 mice consisting of three groups: with signs of slow influenza infection ("dwarf"), "nude-like" resembling nude mice, and "nude-like" with spontaneous fur growth, was examined. The slow influenza infection in "dwarf" mice was found to be characterized by marked immunosuppression manifested by a sharp reduction of the number of antibody- and rosette-forming cells and blasttransformation of spleen lymphocytes into T- and B-mitogens. The most marked immuno-suppression was found in the "dwarfs" born to the females infected with the virus enriched with standard virions. "Nude-like" animals also had marked immunosuppression (particularly with regard to the rosette-formation), however, the "dwarfs" appeared to have more marked affection of B-cells as compared with "nude-like" mice. Gradual restoration of fur in a portion of "nude-like" animals (spontaneous growth) was due to sharp stimulation of immune responsiveness in them as manifested by a two-fold (as compared with the controls) increase in the number of antibody- and rosette-forming cells and normalization of spleen cell response to T- and B-mitogens. Differences between nude and "nude-like" mice consisting in the latter in the affection of not only T- but also B-link of immunity are discussed.