To observe the Koch phenomenon of Mycobacterium tuberculosis(MTB)-infected guinea pigs after vaccinated with killed H37Ra bacteria or tuberculosis vaccine candidate AEC/BC02.

Eighteen guinea pigs were challenged subcutaneously with 5.0×10³ CFU MTB and after 40 days were divided into 3 groups (6 per group): NS group, AEC/BC02 group and H37Ra group, which were injected intramuscularly 3 times at 1 day interval with normal saline, AEC/BC02 vaccine and killed H37Ra bacteria respectively. Three weeks after the first vaccination, all guinea pigs were sacrificed to evaluate gross pathological scores for liver, spleen and lung, bacterial loads in lung and spleen, and lung inflammation.

The gross pathological score in H37Ra group (48±26) was lower than that in NS group(62±15), but the difference was not significant (t=1.093, P=0.300). The AEC/BC02 group had a significantly lower gross pathological score (36±15) than NS group (t=2.980, P=0.014). No significant difference between H37Ra group and AEC/BC02 group was observed (t=1.009, P=0.337). The spleen bacterial load [(5.31±0.80) log₁₀ CFU]in H37Ra group was slightly lower than that in NS group[(5.57±0.75) log₁₀ CFU] but the difference was not significant (t=1.581, P=0.574). In AEC/BC02 group bacterial load in the spleen was (4.64±0.64) log₁₀ CFU and significantly lower than NS group (t=2.306, P=0.044) and no significant difference between H37Ra group and AEC/BC02 group was observed (t=1.602, P=0.140). Meanwhile, the lung bacterial load in AEC/BC02 group was (3.71±1.01) log₁₀ CFU and in H37Ra group was (3.82±1.25) log₁₀ CFU. Compared to (4.15±0.69) log₁₀ CFU in the NS group, no significant differences were found (t=0.881, P=0.399; t=0.566, P=0.584, respectively). For the lung inflammation, the inflamed areas in H37Ra group were significantly larger [(33.0±4.4%)] than those in both NS group [(14.8±8.4) %, t=4.719, P=0.001] and AEC/BC02 group [(14.8±8.4) %, t=3.616, P=0.005], and no significant differences were seen between AEC/BC02 group and NS group (t=1.041, P=0.322).

The lung inflammation indicated that killed H37Ra bacteria evoked an obvious Koch reaction in the MTB-infected guinea pigs, whereas AEC/BC02 vaccine showed a low risk of causing Koch phenomenon.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Vaccines; Hypersensitivity