Open AccessDetection of Pneumocystis carinii DNA by PCR amplification in various rat organs in experimental pneumocystosis
Author(s) -
Méja Rabodonirina,
R Wilmotte,
Éric Dannaoui,
Florence Persat,
Gérard Bayle,
M Mojon
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of medical microbiology/journal of medical microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1473-5644
pISSN - 0022-2615
DOI - 10.1099/00222615-46-8-665
Subject(s) - pneumocystosis , pneumocystis carinii , biology , lung , spleen , polymerase chain reaction , pneumonia , pathology , virology , immunology , pneumocystis jirovecii , medicine , gene , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , genetics
Pneumocystosis is usually a disease of the lungs, but the number of cases of extrapulmonary pneumocystosis has greatly increased during the AIDS epidemic. Much remains unknown about the frequency and mechanisms of dissemination. In the present study, a systematic search for Pneumocystis carinii by PCR with primers specific for mitochondrial rRNA was performed in the lung, liver, spleen and kidney of 12 immunosuppressed rats and two immunocompetent rats. The amplified products were analysed by Southern hybridisation with a digoxigenin-11-dUTP labeled probe. P. carinii DNA was found in lungs in all 14 rats and in at least one organ other than lung in 11 immunosuppressed rats and the two control rats. We suggest that extrapulmonary dissemination may not be an exceptional phenomenon in the course of pneumocystosis, but rather part of the natural evolution of the disease.