Immunopathology of experimental Chagas' disease: binding of T cells to Trypanosoma cruzi-infected heart tissue.
The immunopathology of Chagas' disease was studied in the experimental model of chronic infection in C57BL/10JT or mice. Sublethal infection with Trypanosoma cruzi, Y strain, induced specific antibodies and a delayed hypersensitivity response to parasite antigens. Mice developed chronic chagasic myocarditis but not skeletal muscle myositis. Binding of T cells to infected heart tissue was investigated during short-term cocultivation of lymphocytes with heart cryostat sections. T cells from infected mice and from normal controls bound equally to myocardium and liver sections from both infected and normal mice. A search in depth was attempted with cells heavily tagged with 99mTc. Labeled T cells from chagasic mice bound to both normal and infected myocardium slices. 99mTc-labeled T cells from controls gave the same binding values. Glass-adherent spleen cells behaved identically to T cells. Prior treatment of the tissue with serum from chronically infected mice did not increase the number of binding cells. Peritoneal macrophages tagged with 99mTc-sulfur colloid also bound to infected myocardium slices. The binding of macrophages was not changed by pretreatment of infected tissue with anti-T, cruzi antibodies. In short, this work did not detect any population of T cells or macrophages which could bind specifically to infected heart tissue to initiate an autoreactive process.
Mortatti
R C
RC
Department of Immunology, Federal University Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Maia
L C
LC
de Oliveira
A V
AV
Munk
M E
ME
D000818:Animals; D000920:Antibody-Dependent Cell Cytotoxicity; D002598:Chagas Cardiomyopathy / Q000276:immunology* / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D008264:Macrophages / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009928:Organ Specificity; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000276:immunology*