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. 1928 Sep 30;48(4):513–532. doi: 10.1084/jem.48.4.513

A STUDY OF THE MECHANISM OF RECOVERY FROM LOBAR PNEUMONIA

Richard H P Sia 1, Oswald H Robertson 1, Shutai T Woo 1
PMCID: PMC2131481  PMID: 19869501

Abstract

Employing a method devised for the investigation of natural immunity and experimental pneumococcus infection, a study has been made of the serum immune changes occurring during the course of lobar pneumonia due to Pneumococcus Types I and II and Group IV, in man. It was found that at the time of crisis or lysis the blood serum acquired constantly the property of promoting pneumococcus killing to a relatively marked degree. Other evidences of antipneumococcus reaction—mouse protection, opsonins, and agglutinins—were also demonstrable in the blood at this time. These immune changes appeared in the majority of cases at the beginning of recovery and failed to occur when the disease terminated fatally. The fact that these observations in human cases are practically identical with previous findings in the experimental disease in cats, enhances considerably the significance of the development of serum immune bodies at the time of crisis since in the experimental animal it was possible to show that the acquisition of passive immunity was associated with greatly increased antipneumococcus resistance.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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