The age-related resistance of rats to Plasmodium berghei infection is associated with differential cellular and humoral immune responses |
| |
Authors: | Adam Estelle Pierrot Christine Lafitte Sophia Godin Claude Saoudi Abdelhadi Capron Monique Khalife Jamal |
| |
Affiliation: | INSERM U547, IFR 17, Institut Pasteur de Lille, 1 rue du Pr. Calmette, 59019 Lille Cedex, France. |
| |
Abstract: | In this study, we investigated how the age of rats would affect the course of infection of and the immune response to Plasmodium berghei. Both young (4-week-old) and adult rats (8-week-old) can be infected with P. berghei ANKA strain, with significantly higher levels of infected red blood cells in young rats. While 100% of young rats succumbed to infection, adult rats were able to clear blood parasites and no mortality was observed. Analysis of cellular distribution and circulating cytokines demonstrated the persistence of CD4+/CD25+ T cells and high expression of circulating interleukin-10 (IL-10) during the progression of infection in young-susceptible rats, whereas high levels of CD8+ T cells and natural killer T cells are detected in adult-resistant rats. Analysis of antibody isotypes showed that adult rats produced significantly higher levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma)-dependent IgG2c antibodies than young rats during infection. Further evaluation of the role of IL-10, IFN-gamma and of immune cells showed that only the adoptive transfer of spleen cells from adult-resistant rats was able to convert susceptibility of young-susceptible rats to a resistant phenotype. These observations suggest that cell-mediated mechanisms are crucial for the control of a primary infection with P. berghei in young rats. |
| |
Keywords: | Rat Malaria Age Plasmodium berghei Cell-mediated immunity Cytokine |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect PubMed 等数据库收录! |
|