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The role of selenium in intestinal motility and morphology in a murine model of Typanosoma cruzi infection

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Abstract

Infection with Trypanosoma cruzi causes megasyndromes of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract in humans and animals. In the present study, we employed magnetic resonance imaging to non-invasively monitor the effect of selenium supplementation on alterations in the GI tract of T. cruzi-infected mice. CD1 mice infected with T. cruzi (Brazil strain) exhibited dilatation of the intestines similar to that we recently reported in infected C57Bl/6 mice. The average intestine lumen diameter increased by 65% and the increase was reduced to 29% in mice supplemented with 2 ppm selenium in the drinking water. When supplemented with 3 ppm selenium in chow the lumen diameter was also significantly reduced although the difference between the infected and infected supplemented mice was smaller. Intestinal motility in infected mice fed with selenium-enriched chow was increased compared with infected mice fed with normal unsupplemented chow and was not significantly different from intestinal motility in uninfected mice. We suggest that Se may be used to modulate the inflammatory, immunological, and/or antioxidant responses involved in intestinal disturbances caused by T. cruzi infection.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported in part by grants from the Unites States National Institute of Health grants CA123334 and AI062730 (LAJ) and AI076248 (HBT), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Ensino Superior (CAPES), FIOCRUZ, and FAPERJ. All animal studies were performed in accordance with the guidelines established by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology & Biophysics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA

    Andréa Pereira de Souza, Ryan Sieberg, Hua Li, Hannah R. Cahill & Linda A. Jelicks

  2. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Laboratório de Inovações em Terapias, Ensino e Bioprodutos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Andréa Pereira de Souza & Tania C. Araújo-Jorge

  3. Department of Pathology (Division of Parasitology) and Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA

    Dazhi Zhao & Herbert B. Tanowitz

Authors
  1. Andréa Pereira de Souza
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  2. Ryan Sieberg
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  3. Hua Li
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  4. Hannah R. Cahill
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  5. Dazhi Zhao
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  6. Tania C. Araújo-Jorge
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  7. Herbert B. Tanowitz
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  8. Linda A. Jelicks
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Correspondence to Linda A. Jelicks.

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de Souza, A.P., Sieberg, R., Li, H. et al. The role of selenium in intestinal motility and morphology in a murine model of Typanosoma cruzi infection. Parasitol Res 106, 1293–1298 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-010-1794-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-010-1794-1

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