The effects of nutrient limitation and growth rate in the chemostat on the immunogenicity ofVibrio cholerae

摘要

The possibility was examined of using the chemostat to produce cholera vaccine of immunogenicity similar or superior to that of conventional vaccine produced from organisms grown on nutrient agar. The immunogenicity in mice of vaccines prepared from organisms grown under carbon, nitrogen, magnesium and phosphate limitation each at low and high growth rates was inferior to that of conventional vaccine. It was concluded that under the conditions used in this study the chemostat could not be used to produce cholera vaccine of acceptable immunogenicity. The sensitivity of organisms grown under the same conditions in the chemostat to agglutination by specific agglutinating antiserum showed phenotypic variation and under carbon limitation was growth rate related, although the increased sensitivity to agglutination of carbon‐limited organisms at high growth rates was not paralleled by increased ability of these organisms to induce agglutinating antibodie