Immunization against retrograde pyelonephritis. II. Prevention of retrograde Escherichia coli pyelonephritis with vaccines.

Vaccination with heat-killed or formalinized cells of E coli 0:111, or E coli 06 (Williams), prevented retrograde E coli pyelonephritis. Since there was no bacteremia and no urinary antibody, the vaccination appeared to protect by immune reactions operating in the kidney itself. The vaccine failed to protect against a highly virulent form of E coli 06 (Riffle), possibly because the amount of antibody to its lipopolysaccharide was inadequate. Since all three strains possessed K antigen in approximately equal amounts, the difference in results was not attributed to its presence.