Response of Mice to Certain Avirulent Bacteria after Exposure to Sublethal Total Body X-Irradiation.

摘要

It has been found previously(1;2) that whole body X-irradiation markedly lowers the resistance of mice to infection. The appearance of bacteria following this treatment has been demonstrated by several investigators(2-6). Recently in a careful and systematic study Miller and associates (7) stated a that during the period of greatest mortality from X-irradiation in mice bacteria from the lower intestinal tract invaded the blood stream and produced bacteremia often of great severity. Howland and associates(8) and Miller and associates(9) have observed that some degree of protection is afforded animals against the effects of total body irradiation by means of antibiotics. Graham and Graham(lO) have reported that groups of mice inoculated with 1 ml of horse serum immediately after exposure to 400 r total body irradiation evidenced greater mortality than did control animals. In the course of current investigations of the relationship of irradiation to immunity (11) it was observed that mice subjected to sublethal doses of irradiation succumbed to subcutaneous inoculation of live and heat-killed avirulent bacteria. This paper describes the initial studies dealing with this phenomenon.