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Taenia crassiceps cysticercosis: immune response in susceptible and resistant BALB/c mouse substrains

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Abstract

Taenia crassiceps can naturally and experimentally infect rodents in which they reproduce by budding. Differences in the susceptibility to T. crassiceps cysticercosis were found between two BALB/c substrains: BALB/cAnN (susceptible) and BALB/cJ (resistant). In chimeric mice, resistance was transferred to susceptible mice with bone marrow cells from the resistant mice, which argues in favor of an immune mediation of the resistant phenotype. To further explore the immune response that could underlie these differences in susceptibility, the specific cellular immune response elicited by the parasite was explored in both substrains. An increased proliferative response and IL-2 levels were induced by cysticercal antigens only in splenocytes from resistant mice. A decrease in the percentage of CD4+ (11.1%), CD8+ (17.5%) was found in splenocytes from susceptible BALB/cAnN mice. A study of the TCRVβ repertoire revealed a significant decrease in Vβ2 in both CD4+ and CD8+ splenocytes only in the susceptible BALB/cAnN strain.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Helena Ong, Mercedes Baca, Marisela Hernández, and Carlos Castellanos for their assistance. This work was supported by The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (55000643), CONACyT Mexico G25955, The British Council, and Dirección General de Asuntos de Personal Académico 212401, UNAM, México. The experiments were performed in compliance with Mexican laws and regulations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Immunology, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 70-228, 04510, Mexico City, Mexico

    Sergio López-Briones, Edmundo Lamoyi, Gladis Fragoso & Edda Sciutto

  2. Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Mark J. Soloski

Authors
  1. Sergio López-Briones
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  2. Edmundo Lamoyi
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  3. Gladis Fragoso
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  4. Mark J. Soloski
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  5. Edda Sciutto
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Correspondence to Edda Sciutto.

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López-Briones, S., Lamoyi, E., Fragoso, G. et al. Taenia crassiceps cysticercosis: immune response in susceptible and resistant BALB/c mouse substrains. Parasitol Res 90, 236–242 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-003-0848-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-003-0848-z

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