Comparative study of oral Yersinia enterocolitica infection in three cytokine deficient mice.

ELICABE J; CARGNELUTTI D; GUTIÉRREZ J; CASTRO D; GUZMÁN A; DI GENARO S

Córdoba, Argentina

Congreso; VII Congreso Latinoamericano de Inmunología; 2005

Asociacion Latinoamericana de Inmunología (ALAI)

The goal was to compare the course of oral infection with Y. enterocolitica O:3 in cytokine deficient mice. C57BL/6, IL-12p40-/-, IL-4-/- and TNFRp55-/- mice were infected with 107-108 Yersinia. Colonization in spleen, mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) and Peyer’s patches (PP) was analyzed on day 3,21and 60 post-infection (p.i.). Proliferation of spleen cells in response to lipopolisaccharide (LPS) O:3, heat-killed Yersinia (HKY) and Con A was evaluated. Serum Yersinia-specific antibodies were determined by ELISA. The TNFRp55-/- mice resulted the most susceptible knockout mice to Yersinia infection (42% of mortality rate until day 60). Significant loss of body weight was observed on day 11 p.i (p<0.001). Bacterial load in MLN was significant increased in TNFRp55-/- (p<0.01) at day 3 p.i. Lower Yersinia-specific IgA was detected in TNFRp55-/- and IL-12-/- mice on day 14 and 21, respectively. All deficient mice showed decreased anti-Yersinia IgG2a/IgG1 ratio on day 7 p.i. (p<0.05), and IL-12p40-/- on day 14 p.i (p<0.05). TNFRp55-/- mice showed lower spleen cell proliferation to HKY (p<0.001). We concluded that TNFRp55 deficiency markedly affects the resistance to oral Y. enterocolitica O:3 infection.