title: Thymic alterations in Plasmodium berghei-infected mice.
abstract: The primary function of the thymus is to develop immature T-cells into cells that further in the periphery will be able to carry out immune functions. The Literature has shown that thymus can be a target for many pathogens and severe structural alterations take place in this organ during infectious diseases. Here, we investigated if thymus is also a target organ during experimental malaria infection by analyzing the presence of parasites inside the organ and histological alterations in thymuses from Plasmodium berghei NK65-infected BALB/c. After 14 days of infection, parasites were found inside the thymus that presented a profound atrophy with total loss of its architecture. We propose that the presence of parasites in the thymus induces histological modifications that alter the microenvironment, impairing by consequence the successful T cell development. Additional studies are currently being developed in our laboratory to verify if such thymic alterations can influence the systemic immune response to the parasite.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Biology Institute, State University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Andrade
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gameiro
authors.forename: P R A
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Nagib
authors.forename: B O
authors.initials: BO
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Talaisys
authors.forename: F T M
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Verinaud
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008288:Malaria / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D010962:Plasmodium berghei / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology