title: Immune control of Brucella abortus 2308 infections in BALB/c mice.
abstract: BALB/c mice infected with Brucella abortus strain 2308 have 10-fold higher levels of bacteria during the plateau phase of infection (the time period when the number of colony-forming units in vivo remains consistent) than the more resistant C57BL/10 mice. This is due to a cessation of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) production that begins after the first week of infection and continues until the end of the plateau phase at least 6 weeks post infection. Despite the lack of IFN-gamma production during this time BALB/c mice are able to prevent an increase in bacterial colony-forming units. Here it was shown that both tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and CD8 T cells were involved in controlling bacterial numbers in BALB/c mice during this time. That is, neutralization of TNF-alpha or depletion of CD8 T cells with monoclonal antibodies resulted in a significant increase in the number of splenic colony-forming units recovered at 3 weeks post infection. In the absence of CD8 T cells there was also a significant increase in splenic macrophages. The role of TNF-alpha may depend upon the presence of interferon-gamma early in the infection since when TNF-alpha was neutralized in interferon-gamma gene knockout mice there was a marked increase in splenic macrophages, NK cells and neutrophils but not a significant increase in colony-forming units.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Parent
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sathiyaseelan
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Baldwin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002003:Brucella abortus / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D002006:Brucellosis / Q000276:immunology*; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha