Local and systemic antibody responses in mice immunized intranasally with native and detergent-extracted outer membrane vesicles from Neisseria meningitidis

The mouse humoral immune response toward native or detergent-extracted outer membrane vesicles (NOMVs and DOMVs, respectively) from Neisseria meningitidis was determined after intranasal immunization. Both preparations elicited high frequencies of NOMV-specific antibody-forming cells (AFCs) locally in the nasal associated lymphoid tissue (NALT) after three or four weekly doses. The diffuse NALT (D-NALT) contained ca. 10-fold more NOW-specific AFCs than those observed in the mediastinal lymph node, spleen, and bone marrow. AFCs observed in the D-NALT were primarily immunoglobulin A positive (IgA(+)) and were maintained for at least 1 month. In contrast, the organized NALT (O-NALT) contained low numbers of AFCs, and the response was relatively short-lived. In other lymphoid tissues, AFCs producing various IgG subclasses and IgM were present with IgG2b-producing AFCs being dominant or codominant with IgA or IgG2a. In serum and in all of the tissues examined, with the exception of the NALT, NOMVs clearly induced a stronger antibody response and a broader range of antibody isotypes than DOMVs. The development of NOMV-specific AFCs in spleen and bone marrow after intranasal immunization was slow compared to intravenous immunization but, once established, the intranasally elicited responses increased steadily for at least 75 days. NOMV-pecific antibodies induced via several routes of immunization had high bactericidal activities in serum. Our results indicated that intranasally administered OMVs induced strong local and systemic antibody responses in mice that were relatively long-lived.