Study of immune defence against Trichinella spiralis in BCG treated mice

In vivo and in vitro studies were performed to determine the effect of BCG- activated macrophages on 2-hour-old newborn larvae (NBL2) of Trichinella spiralis. In vitro studies were done by the technique of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) using peritoneal cells of BALB/c mice which had been treated with BCG 4-6 days before. No significant differences were found between the percentage of mortality caused by cells from treated animals and that corresponding to the untreated ones (control mice). The same result was obtained when only glass-adherent cell populations only were used. Intravenous administration of NBL2 and anti-T. spiralis antibodies to BCG-treated mice resulted in the same percentage of infectivity as that corresponding to control animals. These results indicate that an increase in the activity of macrophages induced by BCG neither alters the cytotoxic activity of the effector cells nor plays a direct role in the destruction of NBL2 of T. spiralis.