Chagas' disease: decreased resistance to Trypanosoma cruzi acquired infection in offspring of infected mice.
The course of Trypanosoma cruzi infection was studied in an experimental model, using the offspring of mice that were chronically infected with T. cruzi. When infected two months after birth, a higher mortality rate in heavily parasitized mice occurred in these offspring than in controls born to uninfected mothers. The harmful maternal influence reached a maximum when offspring were exposed both to prenatal (placental) and postnatal (lactating) influences. It was a reversible phenomenon that led to a T. cruzi-specific failure of the offspring to control the acute phase of the infection. Such features are suggestive of a maternally-induced impairment of the immune response of the offspring.
Carlier
Y
Y
Laboratoire de Parasitologie, Faculte de Medecine, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
Rivera
M T
MT
Truyens
C
C
Ontivero
M
M
Flament
J
J
Van Marck
E
E
de Maertelaer
V
V
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D007153:Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes; D007774:Lactation; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D011247:Pregnancy; D012737:Sex Factors; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000276:immunology*