Abstract
Gastric cryptosporidia only inhabit the glandular part of the stomach of all age categories of their hosts and can cause chronic life-long infections independent of a host's immune status. The immune response in the stomach mucosa during the primary infection and re-infection with Cryptosporidium muris (TS03 and CB03) in immunocompetent BALB/c mice was characterized using flow cytometry analysis and measurement of IFN-γ and IL10 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Significantly, elevated migration of T lymphocytes (more than 1,000-fold), especially CD8+ T lymphocytes, to the stomach mucosa occurred during primary infection and persisted for more than 2 months after its resolution. The ex vivo cultures of splenocytes revealed very low levels of IFN-γ production during the course of the primary infection (0.5 ng/ml), whereas in the following re-exposure to the parasites, the concentration of IFN-γ rapidly increased 22-fold. Although the two parasite strains that were tested were genetically distinct, they yielded similar results in the induction of cellular immune responses, suggesting that these patterns are not unique to a single parasite strain. These results imply that the CD8+ T lymphocytes are involved in the immune response to gastric cryptosporidiosis and could play an important role in the elimination of C. muris infection in mice.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Grant Agency of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (project no. KJB500960701) and the Institute of Parasitology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Z60220518). The findings and conclusions in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Jalovecká, M., Sak, B., Kváč, M. et al. Activation of protective cell-mediated immune response in gastric mucosa during Cryptosporidium muris infection and re-infection in immunocompetent mice. Parasitol Res 106, 1159–1166 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-010-1785-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-010-1785-2