Levels of tumor necrosis factor alfa, gamma interferon and interleukins 4, 6, and 10 in mice infected with virulent or attenuated strains of Trypanosoma cruzi

REVELLI S; GÓMEZ L; WIETZERBIN J; BOTTASSO O; BASOMBRIO M; BOTTASSO OSCAR

PARASITOLOGY RESEARCH

SPRINGER

Lugar: Alemania; Año: 1999 vol. 86 p. 147 - 150

0932-0113

Inoculation of BALB/c mice with the virulentTulahuen (TUL) strain of T. cruzi was shown to lead toprogressive and eventually lethal infections, whereasinfection with an attenuated strain (TCC) resulted in ahardly noticeable experimental disease producing notissue damage. To determine whether di?erences in suchinfection outcome are associated with a particular pat-tern of cytokine response, a study was undertaken toinvestigate the serum levels of TNF-a, IFN-c, IL-4, IL-6, and IL-10 by using an enzime-linked immunosorbentassay. Mice from both infected groups were bled at 5, 9,15, 22, 30 and 48 days post-infection (pi), with the sameinterval being applied for obtention of serum samples inage-matched uninfected mice, a group that yieldednegative results in all cases. Infection with the TULstrain of T. cruzi was accompanied by a significant in-crease of TNF-a serum concentrations at day 5 pi, anddetectable amounts of IFN-c by day 15 pi, which wereexclusively recorded in this group. Serum IL-4 wasmostly present in TCC mice with values at day 15 pibeing statistically significant in relation to TUL-infectedmice. IL-10 was firstly detected at 3 weeks after infec-tion, and showed higher levels in the TCC group, al-though comparisons with TUL-infected group were notsigni®cant. At our limit of detection, no samples werefound to contain IL-6 serum concentrations. Infectionwith virulent parasites seems to be associated withpresence of Th1-type cytokines, whereas challenge withthe attenuated TCC strain appears as being related to aTh2-type profile.