A comparison between longitudinal cellular and humoral immune response to C. albicans antigen in immunized rabbits was performed. The results showed that the peak of lymphocyte transformation occurred on the 18th day post immunization. Low level of antibodies (IgG), as detected in the ELISA assay, was found by 28th day post immunization.

The relevance of cross-reactivity between the antigens from C. albicans and other five pathogenic Candida species was studied. Rabbits infected with C. albicans reacted in the leukocyte transformation test in varying degrees to C. albicans, as well as to the antigen extracts of other Candida species. The results obtained suggest that the six pathogenic species of Candida can be divided into three groups according to the results of in vitro test for cell mediated immune cross-reaction. The cell wall antigens from different Candida species revealed strong cross-reactions between species, while the cytoplasmic antigens appeared to be more specific.