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EXPERIMENTAL MURINE LEPROSY:
Author(s) -
Closs Otto,
Haugen Olav A.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
acta pathologica microbiologica scandinavica section a pathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1600-0463
pISSN - 0365-4184
DOI - 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1973.tb00486.x
Subject(s) - leprosy , bacilli , immune system , infiltration (hvac) , immunity , mycobacterium , biology , immunology , mycobacterium leprae , rodent , cell mediated immunity , bacteria , genetics , physics , thermodynamics , ecology
To propagate bacilli, a suspension of Mycobacterium lepraemurium (MLM) was injected intravenously into 40 outbred albino mice. Pronounced differences were observed in the rate of progression of the infection, and 8 mice representing the clinically observed extremes were histologically examined. Poor clinical condition was found to correlate with the presence of many granulomas and few or no surrounding lymphocytes, indicating weak or absent cell mediated immunity (CMI). Good clinical condition correlated with smaller and fewer granulomas with less bacilli and a pronounced infiltration of small lymphocytes. These observations strongly suggest that outbred mice differ in their susceptibility to MLM‐infection. The basis for this heterogeneity, which bears some resemblance to the spectrum in human leprosy, is assumed to be the varying capacity of individual mice to mount a cell mediated immune response against the mycobacterium.