Fig. 2

Schematic representation of the oral immunization protocol. Each mouse in a group of six was orally gavaged with 1.6 g fresh weight of cells resuspended in a final volume of 2.4 mL of phosphate-buffered saline. A total of six doses were orally administered every alternate week with each dose consisting of cell suspensions that were split equally and administered four times per day. Subsequent immune response monitoring was performed through retro-orbital bleeding and fecal matter collection at 4 days after the final feeding and continued every week up to 32 days, followed by intraperitoneal booster injection with purified antigen on day 43 and subsequent bleeding on day 46. d# represents days post final vaccination