Studies on the Clearance of Radioiodinated Pertussis Vaccine From the Lungs of Immunized and Non-Immunized Mice Following Intratracheal Administration

Abstract

The intratracheal route of administration has been shown by means of radio-iodinated pertussis vaccine to give more reproducible deliveries to the lung tissue in the challenge of mice than the intranasal route. Mice immunized 1 day or longer with a single immunizing dose of pertussis vaccine cleared a significantly higher amount of radioactivity from their lungs for a period of 24 hours following the intratracheal administration of radioiodinated pertussis vaccine than did non-immunized mice. Among those animals that received the labeled vaccine intratracheally, the mice that were immunized 6 days to 30 days previously showed higher fresh weights of lungs than those not immunized. The significance of these results is discussed.