PRODUCTION OF DELAYED HYPERSENSITIVITY TO CRYPTOCOCCUS NEOFORMANS IN EXPERIMENTAL ANIMALS

Lomanitz, Rachel (University of Oklahoma School of Medicine, Oklahoma City) and John M. Hale. Production of delayed hypersensitivity to Cryptococcus neoformans in experimental animals. J. Bacteriol. 86:505-509. 1963.-Rabbits and guinea pigs have been sensitized to somatic, as well as whole-cell, antigens of a small-capsuled variant of Cryptococcus neoformans ODH-DV. Rabbits have also been sensitized to soma and to whole cells of a large-capsuled patient isolate. The time required for appearance of skin reactivity, after intracutaneous injection of antigenic material, indicated that the hypersensitivity developed was of the delayed type. This was subsequently demonstrated in both rabbits and guinea pigs by passive transfer of the hypersensitivity to normal animals. Efforts to transfer the skin sensitivity to normal rabbits with serum from sensitized animals were unsuccessful, indicating that humoral antibodies are not involved. Preliminary studies suggest that the sensitizing antigen resides in the cell wall and is highly specific.