title: The effect of interleukin-2 on parasitemia and myocarditis in experimental Chagas' disease.
abstract: Previous investigations showed that interleukin-2 (IL-2) administered in vivo into mice infected with Trypanosoma cruzi reduced levels of parasitemia and increased longevity. Present experiments examined the effect of administration of different doses of IL-2 at different times during infection in mice on parasitemia and histopathology of heart tissue. Two different doses of IL-2 (1,500 or 10,000 U) given at 3 different times during infection were equivalent in reducing parasitemia. All of the IL-2 treated groups of mice had significantly lower numbers of circulating trypomastigotes as compared with controls not receiving this lymphokine. This IL-2 treatment of T. cruzi-infected mice resulted also in lower numbers of pseudocysts in all 4 ventricular regions in the hearts. This was particularly evident in the more severely infected right ventricular wall; however, a similar decrease was not as apparent in the less severely infected left ventricular wall. The IL-2 treated, infected mice showed minimal or no effect in reducing inflammation of myocardial cells. However, the mildest inflammation of ventricular wall tended to occur in mice receiving IL-2 treatment either as a low dose (1,500 U) or a high dose (10,000 U) at 5, 7 and 9 days after infection as compared with mice treated later on. It was concluded that IL-2 treatment of infected mice produced a significant decrease in parasitemia and decreased infection of myocardial cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109-7325.
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Hulsebos
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Choromanski
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Kuhn
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002598:Chagas Cardiomyopathy / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000469:parasitology; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D009205:Myocarditis / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D007376:Interleukin-2