The present regulation on Pertussis Vaccine in Japan requires the following method for the “safety test ”: Each of two guinea pigs should be inoculated intraperitoneally with 5.0 cc and 5 mice 0.5 cc of a test vaccine. The animals should survive for a specified period without any pathological signs due to the vaccine, and their body weight should regain to its starting level within a specified time. This method is essentially equal to those used in many other countries.
This type of method belongs to the so-called “minimum requirement” type in which an absolute value of toxicity is defined. The definition of an absolute toxicity in terms of animal reactions (animal units) is unsatisfactory, because the animal unit is highly variable due not only to the variation of animals, but also to that in the mean response of stocks of animals in different laboratories and at different times. Even if the assay conditions are controlled as strictly as possible, it is not possible that the experimental conditions are quite the same or different only in minor factors, therefore another source of variation occurs. Thus, when the toxicity of a vaccine is sufficiently far from the specified level, no matter whether it is above or below the level there will be no trouble. It is obvious, however, that the results of assay are variable when the difference in toxicities between a test preparation and the specified level is within the range of variation of the response in the system, as we have often experienced in the routine assay for toxicity of commercial pertussis vaccines.
In contrast to the failure to make accurate measurements in terms of animal reactions, much greater success has been attained by the introduction of a method estimating relative potency, in which estimation of an unknown preparation is made by comparison with a standard (or a reference) preparation. The standards in a stable form, which was introduced by Ehrlich, made this comparative methods possible.
Besides, by the method of minimum requirement type neither quantitative determination of toxicity nor statistical analysis of the accuracy of the results are possible.
For these reasons we investigated the comparative method in order not only to establish a more reliable method in the “safety test” of pertussis vaccine, but also to reinvestigate the relationship between the toxicity of pertussis vaccine and the magnitude of reactions by the vaccine in human beings.
As there had never appeared reports concerning biological assay for toxicity of pertussis vaccine by the comparative method, the first step of this study was to select the response of animals or its metameter (Bacharach
et al., 1942) biologically reasonable and suitable for the statistical analysis. Since the final step of the study should be the comparison of results between human beings and test animals, it would be desirable to select such a response as fever, which is common and measurable both in human beings and in such an experimental animal as the rabbit. However it was considered impractical to select fever as the response because of the difficulty in using adequately large numbers of rabbits for the routine work. We have long been making assays measuring the body weight changes of animals according to the current regulation. Measuring the body weight is relatively easy in practice and a large number of mice are available for the test under more or less controlled condition. Therefore, the assay method by the body weight change in mice was first investigated.
If we find no significant correlation between the magnitude of reaction in human beings and the toxicity of vaccines estimated by the method proposed, then we will have to further search for other animal responses suitable for the purpose.
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