title: Trypanosoma cruzi: mixture of two populations can modify virulence and tissue tropism in rat.
abstract: In rats, CL-Brener clone caused high mortality, severe acute myocarditis, and myositis that subsided completely in surviving animals. Accordingly, no parasite kDNA could be amplified in several organs after 4 months. The monoclonal JG strain caused null mortality, acute predominantly focal myocarditis, discrete and focal myositis, and a chronic phase with sparse inflammatory foci. Double infection with both Trypanosoma cruzi populations turned mortality very low or null. At the end of the acute phase, the heart exhibited only JG strain kDNA (LSSP-PCR), while skeletal muscles and rectum exhibited only CL-Brener kDNA. Molecular and histopathological findings were accordant. In double infection chronic phase, JG strain remains in heart and appeared in organs previously parasitized by CL-Brener clone. Understanding the virulence and histotropism shifts now described could be important to clarify the variable clinical course and epidemiological peculiarities of Chagas' disease.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Morfologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil.
authors.forename: Deila J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Franco
authors.forename: Annamaria R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Vago
authors.forename: Egler
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chiari
authors.forename: Fidel C A
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Meira
authors.forename: Lucia M C
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Galvão
authors.forename: Conceição R S
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Machado
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000473:pathology; D018105:DNA, Kinetoplast / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003964:Diaphragm / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D004947:Esophagus / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D006321:Heart / Q000469:parasitology; D007421:Intestine, Small / Q000469:parasitology; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D018512:Parasitemia / Q000469:parasitology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012007:Rectum / Q000469:parasitology; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D018105:DNA, Kinetoplast