Alteration of the antibody response to Escherichia coli O antigen in mice by prior exposure to various somatic antigens.

In the present study in mice we used the Jerne plaque assay to compare the immunity enhancing potential of different Gram-negative bacteria with special regard to their endotoxin. The results confirm the recent finding that injection of Escherichia coli bacteria of various serotypes may enhance the IgG antibody response to the O antigen of a serologically unrelated E. coli strain injected subsequently, but may suppress the IgM antibody formation. The O antibodies formed were of low avidity but were antigen specific. Smaller amounts of antibodies were formed to a serologically unrelated antigen, E. coli O76, which had not been injected. Of the strains tested as primary stimuli E. coli O4 gave considerably greater enhancement than any other serotype including the homologous E. coli O6, when a short interval between the injections was used. The influence of O4 on the serologically unrelated anti-O6 response was stronger than on the response to the cross-reactive E. coli O18 antigen, suggesting that O antigen cross-reactivity is not the basis for the immunomodulation. Formalin-killed bacteria were more effective in this respect than boiled bacteria or purified lipopolysaccharide and rough mutants (E. coli R1--R4) and E. coli O4 were less effective than many of the other smooth E. coli. These findings suggest that shared determinants in the lipid, basic carbohydrate core or Kunin common antigen portions of the endotoxin do not play the major immunomodulating role in this system. Salmonella reading but not Pseudomonas aeruginosa affected the anti-E. coli O6 response in a similar manner. One explanation for the alterations in the immune response observed implies the presence of an antigen determinant shared by many Enterobacteriaceae in such a position in relation to the O antigen that it can be utilized for cellular co-operative events in the O antibody response. The protein portion of the endotoxin protein--lipid--carbohydrate complex is a possible location.