Differences in immune responses to antibiotics in three guinea-pig strains

The present experiments were undertaken to clarify the differences in humoral immune response to two beta-lactam antibiotics, benzylpenicillin potassium (PcG) and cephalothin sodium (CET), in guinea-pig strains. Guinea pigs of three different strains, Hartley, Strain 2 and Strain 13, were immunized subcutaneously with PcG (10 mg/body) 1 or 3 times a week, 10 times in total, or with CET (20 mg/body) 3 times a week, 12 times in total. Humoral immune responses to the two antibiotics were assessed by passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) and active systemic anaphylaxis (ASA) reactions. The relative intensities of the responses to PcG and CET detected by PCA reaction were Hartley > Strain 2 > Strain 13. On the other hand, Hartley and Strain 13 guinea pigs displayed high responses to the two antibiotics by ASA reaction, and Strain 2 exhibited a relatively low response. Based on these results, it was clarified that the Hartley strain, which is the most common strain used in ordinary allergenicity tests, showed the highest response to the two antibiotics tested in PCA and ASA reactions.