TRICHINELLA-SPIRALIS INFECTION IN CONGENITALLY ATHYMIC (NUDE) MICE - PARASITOLOGICAL, SEROLOGICAL AND HEMATOLOGICAL STUDIES WITH OBSERVATIONS ON INTESTINAL PATHOLOGY

Abstract

In 6 experiments the course of a T. spiralis infection in congenitally athymic (nu/nu) mice and their heterozygous thymus-bearing littermates (+/nu) was followed. In the +/nu mice worms were expelled at day 10 post infection [p.i.]. In nu/nu mice worms remained in the intestine until the end of the observation period (83 days p.i.). In testing the yield of muscle larvae in +/nu and nu/nu mice 4-5 times more muscle larvae were isolated from nu/nu mice than from infected +/nu mice. Phenomena observed in +/nu mice only were: anti-T. spiralis antibodies detected by immunofluorescence, intestinal plasma-cell production and intestinal eosinophilia. In nu/nu mice no blood eosinophilia was observed in contrast to the induction of eosinophilia in infected +/nu and infected nu/nu mice reconstituted with thymuses from heterozygous littermates. Intra-epithelial lymphocytes, more numerous in +/nu than in nu/nu mice, were not attracted by Trichinella antigen. Worm expulsion seems to be a T [thymus derived] cell-dependent phenomenon. Plasma cell and antibody production as well as tissue and blood eosinophilia were thymus-dependent in a T. spiralis infection.