Effect of host's nutrition on immune response to amoebic antigen & on susceptibility to infection with Entamoeba histolytica
Rao, V.G.; Padma, M.C.
Indian Journal of Experimental Biology 13(2): 168-171
1975
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-5189 PMID: 172442 Document Number: 90253
Rats which had been reared on a well balanced control diet with 20% protein or on a diet with 5% protein and half the amount of vitamins in the control diet were infected with Entamoeba histolytica. Some rats had been inoculated with amoebic antigen. Similar experiments were made on rabbits. Rats on the control diet showed low infectivity rate and negligible lesions as opposed to severe, sometimes fatal, lesions in those on the deficient diet. The pathogenicity index was 5 times greater for those on the deficient diet than for controls. The control rats given amoebic antigen showed high haemagglutination (HA) titres, with a median of 1:6000, but those on the deficient diet had poor responses, with a median of 1:1500. The HA antibody activity was demonstrated in the IgG fraction of immunoglobulins in both rabbits and rats.