Apoptosis and cell proliferation in the mouse model of embryonic death induced by Tritrichomonas foetus infection

WOUDWYK M; ZANUZZI C; NISHIDA F; GIMENO EJ; SOTO P; MONTEAVARO C; BARBEITO CG.

EXPERIMENTAL PARASITOLOGY

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015 vol. 156 p. 32 - 36

0014-4894

Bovine tritrichomonosis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the protozoon Tritrichomonas foetus and characterised by embryonic-death and abortion. During pregnancy the processes of cell proliferation and death play a crucial role for blastocyst implantation and the subsequent maintenance of early pregnancy, and their misbalance21 may lead to the abortion. In this study we aimed to investigate whether cell proliferation22 and death may be altered during tritrichomonosis. For this purpose, we used pregnant23 BALB/c mice as an alternative experimental animal model that has successfully24 reproduced the infection. We analysed the immunohistochemical expression of active25 caspase-3 and proliferating cell nuclear (PCNA) antigens in the endometrium of26 infected mice. We found an increase in the number of caspase 3 positive cells in those27 infected mice that lost their conceptus. Besides, cell proliferation rate increased in the*ManuscriptClick here to view linked Referencesuterine luminal epithelium of infected animals killed 28 at 5-7 days post coitum (dpc).29 Pregnant infected mice killed at 8-11 dpc showed higher proliferation rate than control30 animals. We suggest that the cytopathic effect induced by T. foetus in the uteri of31 infected mice may induce the apoptosis of the epithelial cells and, as a result, promote a32 compensatory proliferative response. The information here described will be helpful to33 further study the pathogenesis of the bovine tritrichomono