Antibody responses in serum, secretions, and urine of man after parenteral administration of vaccines.

The nature of antibody activities associated with purified immunoglobulin fractions of serum, secretions (whole saliva, parotid secretion, and intestinal secretion), and urine of a volunteer after subcutaneous booster injections with rabies virus, poliovirus, diphtheria and tetanus toxoids, and typhoid-paratyphoid-cholera vaccines was investigated. The results showed that the pattern of antibody responses in these fluids differed from one antigen to another. Serum-antibody responses to killed-bacterial vaccine were associated mainly with the immunoglobulin M (IgM) component, slight activities were detected in the IgG, and only traces of activities, if any, were found in the IgA. These antibodies were primarily of the secretory IgA type in whole saliva and parotid secretion. Slight activities were also observed in the urinary IgG fraction. Responses to inactivated viral vaccine and toxoids were almost exclusively associated with the serum IgG component. Some antitoxic activities to diphtheria and tetanus toxins were noted in a low-molecular-weight urinary immunoglobulin component.