Adjuvanticity of Lactic Dehydrogenase Virus: Influence of Virus Infection on the Establishment of Immunologic Tolerance to a Protein Antigen in Adult Mice

Summary Adult Balb-C mice developed immunologic tolerance following intraperitoneal injection of “unaggregated” human γ-globulin (HGG) prepared either by ultracentrifugation or “biological filtration.” However, unaggregated HGG did not produce immunologic tolerance in mice which had been acutely infected with lactic dehydrogenase virus (LDV) or which had been inoculated with bacterial endotoxin. Acute but not chronic LDV infection converted the animal’s response to unaggregated HGG from tolerance induction into antibody production. These studies suggest that one of the mechanisms of action of an adjuvant is its ability to alter the host’s response to a tolerogenic stimulus.