Brugia pahangi: Antibodies and microfilaremias in Lewis rats

Male and female Lewis rats were inoculated subcutaneously in the left groin with 75 infective larvae of Brugia pahangi and microfilaremias were followed for as long as 420 days postinoculation. Patent infections developed in 64% of the female rats and 95% of the male rats. Mean prepatent periods were similar (65.9 and 63.9 days, respectively), but mean microfilaremias in males rose much higher, to a mean of 218 mf/0.25 ml blood at 270 days postinoculation. IgG titers, as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), to adult worm somatic antigen were higher than those to microfilariae in almost all rats. For both sexes, the most consistently microfilaremic rats had highest titers to these antigens. Granulomas with degenerating microfilaria were present in the spleen of male rats with high microfilaremias (>100–300 mf/0.25 ml blood). Ouchterlony precipitin reactions suggested that most rats with spleen granulomas responded to microfilarial antigen components to which most rats without granulomas did not. Neither spleen granulomas nor antibody responses measured in this study appeared to have protective (microfilaremia-lowering) value. As measured by microfilaremias, the male Lewis rat is not as susceptible as some conventional hosts of B. pahangi, but it does consistently become infected and remains microfilaremic for more than a year. Preferential male susceptibility indicates that this model may be useful for studying this aspect of human lymphatic filariasis.