Immune responses of CBA/J mice to graded infections with Toxocara canis

The immunological responsiveness of CBA/J mice infected with various numbers of the canine ascarid, Toxocara canis, was characterized after a single infection to ascertain the smallest infection capable of perturbing the immune system of the host. Mice receiving the lowest inoculations (5 eggs per mouse or 0.25 larvae per g of body weight) had detectable alterations in the number of circulating peripheral blood eosinophils and spleen weight-to-body weight ratios. Mice infected with 25 eggs each (1.25 larvae per g of body weight) showed augmented concanavalin A-elicited splenic lymphocyte transformation and a positive lymphocyte transformation in response to a toxocaral antigen preparation in addition to even higher eosinophil counts and heavier spleens. Spleen cells from mice receiving the two largest inocula (125 eggs and 250 eggs per mouse or 6.25 and 12.5 larvae per g of body weight, respectively) had in addition to the above responses a sixfold increase in spontaneous DNA synthesis. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for mouse antibody responses to T. canis indicated that the time of onset as well as the magnitude of the antitoxocaral humoral response is directly proportional to the size of the inoculation used to initiate the infection. Finally, we showed that allowing the infection to become protracted results in some responses increasing somewhat in magnitude, but regardless of length of infection, the magnitude of any of the responses examined is proportional to the size of the infection. The results indicate that different host responses have different thresholds of sensitization and suggest that larvacidal reactions which require intricate interactions among several components of the immune system may not occur in very small infections.