Immunological regulation of Angiostrongylus cantonensis infections in rats: modulation of population density and enhanced parasite growth following one or two superimposed infections.
Rats acquired a degree of protective immunity to reinfection with Angiostrongylus cantonensis after a single infection with 50 infective larvae. Infected rats resisted the establishment of most challenging larvae and protective immunity increased with subsequent reinfections. Part of the primary infection was lost after a superimposed second and also following a superimposed third infection, but the total size of the concurrent adult worm populations remained the same as that from a primary infection. Worms surviving from the primary infection showed enhanced growth after each reinfection but their fecundity was impaired.
D000801:Angiostrongylus / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D007109:Immunity; D008168:Lung / Q000469:parasitology; D008297:Male; D008681:Metastrongyloidea / Q000502:physiology*; D009349:Nematode Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000469:parasitology; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013997:Time Factors