The severity and consequences of human Trichuris infection vary widely. This may reflect differences in immune response. T. muris is a natural parasite of mice which provides a close, well defined, easily manipulated model for otherwise uninvestigatable aspects of this response. Normal mice reject the parasite in 3 weeks, but mice subjected to transient immunosuppression around the time of infection develop a persistent caecal infection. Sequential histopathological studies have shown that infected, normal mice develop a marked intraepithelial, mucosal, 'globule leucocyte' response, accompanied by low-level lymphocytic and histiocytic responses in the lamina propria. The reaction is maximal at 3 weeks and declines towards normal after rejection. Infected, immunosuppressed mice show a slower response with, by weeks 4 and 5, fewer 'globule leucocytes', but a chronic colitis comprising heavy, mixed, mucosal and submucosal inflammation and crypt damage accompanied by persistent parasite infection. The 'globule leucocyte' has been characterized by cytochemistry and electron microscopy as having a mast cell origin. This study, with other evidence, suggests that the replacement of a Th2 (allergic) T helper cell response by a Th1 (cell-mediated) response may result in increased severity and persistence of colitis in response to Trichuris infection.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Immunogenetic and evolutionary influences on the host-parasite relationship.

Immunogenetic aspects of the host-parasite relationship between the laboratory mouse and the parasitic nematode Trichinella spiralis are reviewed. Variation in the capacity of hosts to express an effective protective immunity is associated primarily with variation in inflammatory responsiveness. Analysis of the contributions of T lymphocytes, cytokines, and myeloid precursor populations to variation in one particular inflammatory component, eosinophilia, is described. Variation in parasite immunogenicity at the level of host responsiveness to different parasite isolates is described briefly. Variations in host-protective immunity, immunopathology, and parasite immunogenicity are discussed in terms of evolutionary pressures selecting for optimal host and parasite survival in a stable symbiosis.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Immunity and immunogenetics--new approaches to controlling worm infections in sheep.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Mucosal mast cells are functionally active during spontaneous expulsion of intestinal nematode infections in rat.

Infestation of the gastrointestinal tract by parasitic nematodes is invariably associated with mucosal mastocytosis, which is a thymus-dependent phenomenon in parasitized rats, and is adoptively transferable with a T cell-enriched population of thoracic duct lymphocytes. When derived by in vitro culture, mucosal mast cells (MMC) arise from a bone marrow precursor after stimulation by T cell-derived factors. In rats infected with the nematode Trichinella spiralis, mucosal mastocytosis is temporally associated with the immune expulsion of the adult worms whereas in the case of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, mastocytosis is frequently observed to occur after worm expulsion has been completed. Consequently, there has been doubt as to whether MMC are active and serve a functional role in the expulsion of rat intestinal nematodes. MMC contain and secrete a neutral proteinase, rat mast cell protease II (RMCP II); detection and assay of secreted RMCP II therefore provides a direct measurement of MMC activity. Here we describe the release of this enzyme into the blood of rats infected with N. brasiliensis or T. spiralis. Our results show that the systemic secretion of RMCP II coincides with the immune expulsion of these nematodes, demonstrating clearly for the first time that rat MMC are functionally active during the immune elimination of primary nematode infections.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Intestinal helminthiasis and anaemia in youngsters from Matriz da Luz, district of São Lourenço da Mata, state of Pernambuco, Brazil.

A group of youngsters (4-18 years old) in northeast Brazil was studied to establish the prevalence of anaemia and intestinal parasitism, as well as to analyze the correlation between them. Two criteria were used to determine the state of anaemia, the level of haemoglobin and the mean of corpuscular volume. The first was considered a single criterion and the second an associated criteria, used in an attempt to correlate anaemia with iron deficiency. The prevalence of intestinal parasitism was 93%, while the prevalence of anaemia was 43.1% and 16.1% according to the criteria employed (single or associated respectively). Anaemia was significantly associated with both sex and age. No significant statistical difference was observed when the association was made between each parasite and anaemia even with those more related to anaemia.

Adolescent↗