Faculty Research 1990 - 1999

Maternal influence on susceptibility of offspring to Brugia malayi infection in a murine model of filariasis.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1994

Keywords

Animal, Animals-Newborn: im, Brugia-malayi: im, Disease-Susceptibility: ge, Female, Filariasis: ge, im, ps, Immunity-Maternally-Acquired: ge, Male, Mice, Mice-SCID, SUPPORT-U-S-GOVT-P-H-S

First Page

283

Last Page

289

JAX Source

Acta Trop 1994 Dec;58(3-4):283-9

Grant

AI27773/AI/NIAID, AI30046/AI/NIAID, AI30389/AI/NIAID

Abstract

We have used the severe combined immunodeficient C.B-17-scid/scid mouse to investigate the influences of maternal immune status and parasite burden on the susceptibility (or resistance) of offspring to infection with the human filarial parasite, Brugia malayi. C.B-17-scid/scid mice are permissive for infection while immunocompetent C.B-17(-)+/+ mice are uniformly resistant. Reciprocal matings of C.B-17-scid/scid and C.B-17(-)+/+ mice were performed. The C.B-17-scid/scid females were either naive or infected with Brugia malayi. The resulting immunocompetent C.B-17-scid/+ and C.B-17(-)+/scid progeny were challenged at weaning with an intraperitoneal injection of Brugia malayi third stage larvae known to produce patent infection in > 95% of C.B-17-scid/scid mice. We observed that 40.0%l (34/85) of the immunocompetent offspring of C.B-17-scid/scid females x C.B-17(-)+/+ males were permissive for the growth and development of Brugia malayi larvae to adults. No difference was observed in susceptibility to infection between the progeny of infected or uninfected C.B-17-scid/scid mothers mated with C.B-17(-)+/+ fathers, arguing against acquired immunological tolerance to the parasite in the former. In marked contrast, only 4.8% (2/42) of the heterozygous progeny of wild type C.B-17(-)+/+ females mated with C.B-17-scid/scid males were permissive. These observations document conversion of a 'resistant' phenotype to a 'susceptible' phenotype by manipulation of maternal immune status and provide clear evidence of maternal influence on offspring susceptibility to infection with Brugia malayi.

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