| Abstrakt: |
Klebsiella vaccines were isolated by mild diafiltration techniques from culture filtrates of nine capsular types of K. aerogenes (K1, K2, K3, K15, K20, K35, K36, K44 & K63). The bacteria were grown in a chemically defined medium in standardized conditions in a fermenter. The vaccines had a molecular weight of more than 20 000, a carbohydrate content of 40-89%, a protein content of between less than 1 and 16% and small amounts (0.6-1.2%) of lipopolysaccharide. Antisera raised in rabbits to the nine klebsiella vaccines were standardized by passive haemagglutination, immunoglobulin G enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and by autologous passive protection tests. Each rabbit antiserum when passively transferred to mice showed a variable capacity to passively protect mice against lethal infections by a panel of ten capsular types of K. aerogenes (K1-K10). Seven of the rabbit antisera protected mice against more than half of the challenge strains. A pool of six rabbit antisera (anti-K1, K2, K3, K20, K35 & K44) passively protected mice against lethal infections from strains of bacteria representing each of 77 capsular types of K. aerogenes. |
