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Immunohistological features of visceral leishmaniasis in BALB/c mice
Author(s) -
CARRIÓN J.,
NIETO A.,
IBORRA S.,
INIESTA V.,
SOTO M.,
FOLGUEIRA C.,
ABANADES D. R.,
REQUENA J. M.,
ALONSO C.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
parasite immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.795
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1365-3024
pISSN - 0141-9838
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3024.2006.00817.x
Subject(s) - white pulp , visceral leishmaniasis , biology , immunology , spleen , leishmania infantum , arginase , red pulp , parasite hosting , leishmaniasis , leishmania , lymphatic system , immunity , leishmania major , antibody , bone marrow , immune system , biochemistry , amino acid , arginine , world wide web , computer science
SUMMARY It has been reported that the level of protection provided by vaccines against murine visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is low and that progress in research on VL may be due to the lack of appropriate models to study protective immunity. We have analysed the immunohistological features occurring in BALB/c mice after intravenous administration of 103, 105and 106parasites of Leishmania infantum . Our results show that in all cases parasite administration leads to the establishment of infection and to the development of quantifiable immunohistological features which are dependent on the inoculum size. This study demonstrates that differences in the parasite challenge result in changes in the evolution of some of the parameters associated with the degree of the infection in the BALB/c model: level of anti‐ Leishmania antibodies, up‐regulation of spleen arginase activity, balance between IFN‐γ and IL‐10, extent of lymphoid follicle depletion in the splenic white pulp and ineffective development of hepatic granulomas. Also, and depending on the initial infectious inoculum, the absence of parasites in the bone marrow and the number of mature and empty type granulomas were parameters associated with protection. We think that in this model a challenge of the order of 10 5 parasites should prove useful for vaccine studies against VL.