title: Murine immune response induced by Leishmania major during the implantation of paraffin tablets.
abstract: We carried out a model of chronic inflammation using a subcutaneous paraffin tablet in mice experimentally infected with Leishmania major. It was previously reported that the parasite load following paraffin implantation occurred at a peak of 21 days in both BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice. At the present study, we have investigated what cytokines and chemokines are directly related to the parasite load in C57BL/6 mice. All mice were divided in four groups: mice implanted with paraffin tablets; mice experimentally infected with L. major; mice implanted with paraffin tablets and experimentally infected with L. major; and mice submitted only to the surgery were used for the Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) controls. Fragments of skin tissue and the tissue surrounding the paraffin tablets (inflammatory capsule) were collected for histopathology and RT-PCR studies. By 21 days, a diffuse chronic inflammatory reaction was mainly observed in the deep dermis where macrophages parasitized with Leishmania amastigotes were also found. RT-PCR analysis has shown that BALB/c mice showed strong IL-4 and IL-10 mRNA expression than controls with very little expression of IFN-γ. In contrast, both IFN-γ and IL-10 mRNA was found in higher levels in C57BL/6 animals. Moreover, in C57BL/6 mice the expression of chemokines mRNA of CCL3/MIP-1α was more highly expressed than CCL2/MCP-1. We conclude that the Th1 immune response C57BL/6 did not change to a Th2 response, even though C57BL/6 animals presented higher parasitism than BALB/c mice 21 days after infection and paraffin implantation.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Patologia Geral, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. marialeticia@ufmg.br
authors.forename: Maria Letícia Costa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Reis
authors.forename: Vanessa Martins
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.forename: Leda Quércia
authors.initials: LQ
authors.lastname: Vieira
authors.forename: Washington Luiz
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Tafuri
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Mosser
authors.forename: Wagner Luiz
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Tafuri
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018925:Chemokines / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000276:immunology; D016207:Cytokines / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000276:immunology; D018320:Leishmania major / Q000276:immunology; D016773:Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous / Q000276:immunology* / Q000469:parasitology; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010232:Paraffin; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013607:Tablets
chemical_list: D018925:Chemokines; D016207:Cytokines; D013607:Tablets; D010232:Paraffin