Hypothermia,Radiation,and the Immune Response

Summary

An adverse effect of hypothermia for 18 hr to the immune response was observed in hamster sera up to 10 days after primary immunization with Influenza A virus vaccine. Hypothermia caused less inhibition to the secondary response than did radiation, while 2000 R completely destroyed the primary response of both active and hypothermic hamsters. Hypothermia under the conditions described did not afford any protection to the radiosensitivity of either the primary or the secondary immune response. The combination of hypothermia and radiation seemed to act synergistically in lowering the immune response. The presence of both IgG and IgM was shown in the sera of all the groups used in the primary response studies. IgM seemed to be the predominant immunoglobulin in the HI test.