title: Evidence for a rhesus monkey model of asymptomatic tuberculosis.
abstract: Rhesus monkeys (RM) were inoculated intrabronchially with graded doses of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) strains Erdman and H37Rv in an effort to produce a model of asymptomatic tuberculosis infection. Erdman strain produced active disease within 7-11 weeks regardless of dose. Low doses of H37Rv resulted in asymptomatic infections; high doses produced active disease within 11 weeks. Over a 4-month period of post-inoculation study, MTB culture-filtrate protein (CFP)-stimulated bronchoalveolar lavage cells (BALC) and blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from monkeys with active disease (30 cfu Erdman-inoculated) or asymptomatic infection (200 cfu H37Rv-inoculated) produced similar significant quantities of mRNA encoding for IFN-gamma or TNF-alpha, but insignificant quantities of IL-4 mRNA. Differences were observed in antigen-induced in vitro blastogenic responses and serum anti-lipoarabinomannan (LAM) antibody responses in animals with active compared with asymptomatic MTB infections. The results indicate that RM are a good model for the study of asymptomatic tuberculosis infections using low doses of H37Rv.
authors.affiliation: Divisions of Microbiology and Immunology, Veterinary Medicine and Comparative Pathology, Tulane National Primate Research Center, Covington, LA 70433, USA. gormus@tpc.tulane.edu
authors.forename: Bobby J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Gormus
authors.forename: James L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Blanchard
authors.forename: Xavier H
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Didier
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001822:Body Burden; D001992:Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid / Q000166:cytology; D016207:Cytokines / Q000235:genetics; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D017931:DNA Primers; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000276:immunology; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000276:immunology; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000276:immunology; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000276:immunology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000276:immunology; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013997:Time Factors; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D017931:DNA Primers; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C050016:lipoarabinomannan; D004247:DNA