title: Pathological changes in acute experimental toxoplasmosis with Toxoplasma gondii strains obtained from human cases of congenital disease.
abstract: There is a lack of studies using Toxoplasma gondii strains isolated from human patients. Here, we present a pathological study of three strains obtained from human cases of congenital toxoplasmosis in Brazil using inbred mice after oral infection with 10 tissue cysts. Multiplex-nested PCR-RFLP of eleven loci revealed atypical genotypes commonly found in Brazil: toxodb #8 for TgCTBr5 and TgCTBr16 strains and toxodb #11 for the TgCTBr9 strain. BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice were evaluated for survival and histological changes during the acute phase of the disease. All mice inoculated with the non-virulent TgCTBR5 strain survived after 30 days, although irreversible tissue damage was found. In contrast, no mice were resistant to infection with the highly virulent TgCTBR9 strain. The TgCTBr16 strain resulted in 80% survival in mice. However, this strain presented low infectivity, especially by the oral route of infection. Despite being identified with the same genotype, TgCTBr5 and TgCTBr16 strains showed biological differences. Histopathologic analysis revealed liver and lungs to be the most affected organs, and the pattern of tissue injury was similar to that found in mice inoculated perorally with strains belonging to clonal genotypes. However, there was a variation in the intensity of ileum lesions according to T. gondii strain and mouse lineage. C57BL/6 mice showed higher susceptibility than BALB/c for histological lesions. Taken together, these results revealed that the pathogenesis of T. gondii strains belonging to atypical genotypes can induce similar tissue damage to those from clonal genotypes, although intrinsic aspects of the strains seem critical to the induction of ileitis in the infected host.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil.
authors.forename: Breno Veloso
authors.initials: BV
authors.lastname: Pinheiro
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Patologia Geral, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG, Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil.
authors.forename: Maria de Lourdes Meirelles
authors.initials: Mde L
authors.lastname: Noviello
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mariana Maciel
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Cunha
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alice Thomaz
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Tavares
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ana Carolina Aguiar Vasconcelos
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Carneiro
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Patologia Geral, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG, Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rosa Maria Esteves
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Arantes
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil. Electronic address: ricardovitor@icb.ufmg.br.
authors.forename: Ricardo Wagner Almeida
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Vitor
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D060005:Genotyping Techniques; D006801:Humans; D007082:Ileum / Q000473:pathology; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007422:Intestines / Q000473:pathology; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D060885:Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D013154:Spleen / Q000473:pathology; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014122:Toxoplasma / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014124:Toxoplasmosis, Animal / Q000401:mortality / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology*; D014125:Toxoplasmosis, Congenital / Q000401:mortality / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology*; D014774:Virulence
keywords: Atypical genotypes; Experimental toxoplasmosis; Histopathology; Human isolates; PCR-RFLP