[Factors and mechanisms involved in the transmission and development of congenital infection with Trypanosoma cruzi].
This paper synthesizes the results obtained from multidisciplinary studies of Bolivian cases of congenital infection with T. cruzi. Congenital infection and congenital Chagas disease do not result from transmission of a particular strain of parasite, but from an equilibrium between complex phenomena, such as a weak maternal type 1 adaptative immune response associated with high maternal parasitemia, an invasion of placental chorion and umbilical cord by parasites, in front of a fetal T. cruzi-specific immune response characterized by an activation of cytotoxic CD8 T cells producing IFN-gamma and able to limit parasite multiplication and morbi-mortality of congenital Chagas disease.
Laboratoire de Parasitologie, Faculté de Médecine, Université Libre de Bruxelles (U.L.B.), Bruxelles, Belgique. ycarlier@ulb.ac.be
Yves
Y
Carlier
D000818:Animals; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000151:congenital* / Q000469:parasitology / Q000635:transmission*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D010920:Placenta / Q000469:parasitology; D011247:Pregnancy; D015597:Pregnancy Complications, Parasitic; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000502:physiology