Immune Responses and Hematologic Alterations in Splenectomized Pigs Experimentally Infected With Eperythrozoon Suis: I. A Possible Animal Model for Cold Agglutinin Disease in Man
The immune responses and hematologic alterations of acute porcine eperythrozoonosis were studied in 2-month to 4-month-old splenectomized crossbred sibling pigs. The clinical course of the disease was monitored by complete blood counts and serum chemical determinations. Cell-mediated immune responses were measured by the uptake of ('3)H-thymidine (lymphocyte blastogenesis) following the incubation in vitro of peripheral blood lymphocytes with phytohemagglutinin mitogen, pokeweed mitogen, lipopolysaccharide (E. coli) mitogen, porcine erythrocyte stromal antigen, and Eperythrozoon suis particulate antigen. Humoral immune responses were evaluated by serum indirect hemagglutination titers for porcine eperythrozoonosis, serum globulin concentrations, serum gamma globulin concentrations, and by studies that examined the propensity of experimental and control sera to agglutinate normal washed and glutaraldehyde-treated homologous and heterologous erythrocytes at selected temperatures and following treatment of sera with 2-mercaptoethanol.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign