Immunity to Phasmodium Berghei Yoelii in Mice

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The course of infection with 17X nonlethal Plasmodium berghei yoelii was examined in BALB/c mice which were deficient in either T cells or B cells. Markedly increased parasitemia and mortality were observed in athymic (nude) mice which had been backcrossed on a BALB/c background (T cell deficient) compared to similar mice which had been grafted with neonatal BALB/c thymus, and were also observed in BALB/c mice suppressed from birth with goat antiserum to mouse µ-chain (B cell deficient) compared to age- and sex-matched BALB/c controls. These results establish the requirement for the presence of both T cells and B cells for effective resistance to an intercurrent infection with 17XNL P.b. yoelii in adult BALB/c mice. Mechanisms by which the requirement for both T cells and B cells could be explained were discussed. The model of µ suppression was shown to be a valuable tool for an evaluation of the cellular basis of immunity to an infectious disease.