?(Fig
?(Fig.8E),8E), immunized animals appeared completely guarded against vascular changes induced by the challenge strain in the submucosa and serosa. by 81 C-terminal residues (860 to 939 amino acids) made up of a disulfide loop. Inoculation of rabbits with large doses of the truncated intimin mutant (RDEC-1eae860-939) was well tolerated, as observed by the absence of clinical indicators of disease or evidence of intestinal A/E lesions. The efficacy of RDEC-1eae860-939 as a vaccine was evaluated by orogastric inoculation of rabbits with RDEC-1eae860-939 followed by challenge with the virulent strain RDEC-H19A, an Stx1-generating derivative of wild-type RDEC-1 capable of inducing hemorrhagic colitis in rabbits. Following RDEC-H19A challenge, nonimmunized control rabbits exhibited characteristic weight loss with watery to bloody diarrhea and exhibited intimate bacterial attachment, effacement of microvilli, submucosal edema, mucosal heterophile infiltrates,…