Un examen retrospectivo de los aspectos inmunológicos de las infecciones parasitarias

Abstract

The introductory remarks of this study are concerned with past accomplishments. Parasitologists during the first quarter of this century were mainly interested in systematics and life histories, and some of them, especially helminthologists, were disinclined to recognize that acquired immunity develops against the animal parasites. Soon thereafter, however, the immunology of parasitic infections began to be brought into focus; it gathered momentum during the second quarter of the century chiefly because changes in the blood populations of plasmodia and trypanosomes could be related to host reactions. The cellular activities of the host were explored, and the developmental potencies of the lymphocytes began to be realized - although in this field as in others, many were disinclined to attribute any function at all to this cell. During the middle of the century immunological parasitology flourished. Of the subjects investigated, differences between pathogenic and nonpathogenic infections were clarified by separating parasiticidal from reproduction-inhibiting mechanisms and by modifying infections in various ways

Basic data on the hemolysin response in rabbits after the intravenous injection of sheep red blood cells are described in order to give a general idea of the rise and fall in antibody formation in a system with two distinct advantages. This sytem is initiated by a nonreproducing ...(AU)

Publicado en inglés en el Publicación Científica de la OPS 150:3-20, 1967