Electron microscopic examination of antigen uptake by salmonid gill cells after bath immunization with a bacterin |
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| Authors: | A G Zapata M Torroba F Alvarez D P Anderson † O W Dixon † M Wisniewski ‡ |
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| Institution: | Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, University Compultense of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain;U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Fish Health Research Laboratory, Box 700, Kearneysville, WV 25430, U.S.A.;U.S. Department of Agriculture, Appalachian Fruit Station, Kearneysville, WV 25430, U.S.A. |
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| Abstract: | Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar , were given 2-min bath immunization with Yersinia ruckeri O-antigen bacterins at doses of 10, 100, and 1000 μg ml?1. The uptake of the antigen was followed by light and electron microscopy of samples taken immediately and periodically after immunization, and the immune response monitored by the passive haemolytic plaque assay. The particulate antigen was observed in the gill mucus, adhering to and within the pavement cells covering the gill filaments, and in mononuclear phagocytes below the epidermal gill cells. There was a direct doseresponse correlation in the observed immune response according to the numbers of splenic antibody-producing cells 14 days after immunization. The cells involved in the recognition and uptake of a bacterin are initial important steps in the immune response, and these studies may aid in the immunopotentiation of fish vaccines and bacterins. |
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