title: Comparative studies of the infection of Lewis rats with four Trypanosoma cruzi clones.
abstract: Quantitative and qualitative differences in parasitaemia levels and histopathological characteristics occurred in Lewis rats infected with four Trypanosoma cruzi clones. Rats infected with clone Sylvio-X10/7 sustained high parasitaemias and died during the acute phase whereas rats infected with clones Sylvio-X10/4, Miranda/78 or Miranda/80 did not. Myocardial fibrosis was more extensive in rats chronically infected with clone X10/4 than in rats infected with the 2 Miranda clones. Myocardial fibrosis developed more rapidly in rats than has been reported in mice. These characteristics are advantageous in developing animal models of human chagasic myocardiopathy.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002598:Chagas Cardiomyopathy / Q000473:pathology; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000401:mortality / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology*; D002999:Clone Cells; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000235:genetics