Effect of Trichinella spiralis infection on passive cutaneous anaphylaxis in mice

Infection of CFW mice with Trichinella spiralis induced a state of relative unresponsiveness to passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) induced with hen egg albumin and its corresponding antibodies. The unresponsiveness was to PCA produced either with immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) or IgE type of antibodies, but was more pronounced with the latter. As few as 25 larvae given by stomach tube 20 days before induced this resistance, although 400 larvae induced a greater resistance. When 400 to 600 larvae were fed to mice, the refractoriness of these mice to PCA was noticed 15 days later. The sera of infected mice had the ability to inhibit mainly PCA induced by IgE. This inhibitory property of sera from infected mice was more pronounced 35 days after infection than 10 months later, when only weak inhibitory activity was detected. Purified rat IgE inhibited the PCA reactions induced in both mice and rats with mouse IgE-type antibody. At high concentrations, evidence of inhibition of the IgG1-induced PCA in mice was also obtained. We believe that the relative unresponsiveness of infected mice is due to an increase in production of IgE which competitively blocks the mast cell sites for other IgE molecules.