[Formation of immunologic memory to antigens of tuberculosis mycobacteria in mice]

The antibody immune response and development of immunological memory to Murobacterium bovis antigens were studied in experiments carried out on CBA and BALB/c mice. Optimal antigen does for primary immune responses were 1 mg of both live and killed bacterial cells. In contrast to the primary antibody production, formation of the immunological memory was found to depend greatly on the viability of M. bovis injected. The levels of circulating immune complexes increased during secondary antibody responses demonstrated only in mice primed with live mycobacteria but not with killed ones. Aggregation of a purified derivative of tuberculin protein by crosslinking polypeptides using chromium chloride resulted in a significant enhancement of their immunogenic properties providing the high level of immunological memory formation as well as production of the antibodies against M. bovis specific antigens.