Children's Python Humoral Immune Response to LPS and KLH Antigens

A 2026 study by Daniel R. Emanuel compares humoral immune responses in 40 adult Children's pythons (Antaresia childreni) to two non-pathogenic antigens, KLH and LPS, over 183 days. The dataset likely contains results from indirect ELISAs for antigen-specific IgY and white blood cell differentials from blood smears. It is hosted on figshare under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Modeling the time course of humoral immune responses in reptiles based on IgY titer measurements.
• Comparing sex-based differences in immune response based on the finding that males had higher anti-KLH IgY titers than females.
• Evaluating the efficacy of different antigens (KLH vs. LPS) for eliciting measurable immune responses in snake models.
• Correlating early innate immune cell counts (e.g., monocytes) with subsequent antibody production timelines.

Strengths

• Experimental design includes two separate cohorts of 10 males and 10 females each, providing a basis for sex-based comparison.
• Time-series data spans 183 days with multiple sampling points, allowing analysis of response duration.
• Includes multiple immune response metrics: antigen-specific IgY titers and white blood cell differentials.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset is small (686.0 KB), indicating limited scope and likely a summary of experimental results rather than raw observational data.

Provenance

Source

Daniel R. Emanuel via figshare.

Collection Method

Experimental study involving controlled antigen injections (LPS and KLH) and subsequent blood sampling of a captive snake colony.

Time Range

The study period covered at least 183 days of observation post-injection.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-22 05:48:33; freshness should be verified.