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Experimental infection of severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice with the human microsporidian Trachipleistophora hominis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2004

B. KOUDELA ,
J. VÁVRA  and
E. U. CANNING
B. KOUDELA
Affiliation:
Institute of Parasitology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branišovská 31, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic Department of Parasitology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Palackého 1-3, 612 42 Brno, Czech Republic
J. VÁVRA
Affiliation:
Institute of Parasitology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branišovská 31, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, 128 44 Prague, Czech Republic
E. U. CANNING
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
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Abstract

Different courses of microsporidiosis, related to the route of infection, were observed in severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice inoculated with spores of the human microsporidian Trachipleistophora hominis (Phylum Microspora). After eye contamination by spores the mice became moribund within 7 to 8 weeks, showing severe infection in the conjunctiva and cornea, and lighter infections in the urinary bladder, liver and spleen. The mean survival time of intramuscularly inoculated SCID mice was 12 weeks, when heavy infection was found in muscles around the site of inoculation, and also in several viscera. Subcutaneously inoculated SCID mice developed skin lesions around the inoculation sites, and heavy urinary bladder infection, and died 6 or 7 weeks after inoculation. Intracerebrally inoculated SCID mice became moribund 5 or 6 weeks after inoculation with massive infection in the urinary bladder and liver, but none in the brain. Intraperitoneally inoculated SCID mice survived for 13 weeks and the urinary bladder and liver were the most heavily infected organs. The SCID mice, inoculated perorally and examined after 23 weeks, were uninfected. Infection was not detected in the brain of any of the inoculated SCID mice. Our results show that T. hominis has very little tissue specificity. Peroral infection seems to be ineffective in T. hominis, but eye contamination or insect bite (as mimicked by injection) are suggested as possible routes of infection under natural conditions.

Keywords

microsporidiaTrachipleistophora hominisexperimental infectionSCID miceeye infection
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 128 , Issue 4 , April 2004 , pp. 377 - 384
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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