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The Immune Response to Toxocariasis Does Not Modify Susceptibility to Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection in BALB/c Mice

2007; American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; Volume: 77; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4269/ajtmh.2007.77.691

1476-1645

Fabiani Gai Frantz, Rogério Silva Rosada, Walter Miguel Turato, Camila Matias Peres, Arlete Aparecida Martins Coelho‐Castelo, Simone G. Ramos, David M. Aronoff, Célio Lopes Silva, Lúcia Helena Faccioli,

Parasitic Infections and Diagnostics

Mycobacterium tuberculosis and helminth infections coincide geographically and are classically described as TH1 and TH2 pathologies. There is much interest in exploring how concurrent worm infections might alter immune responses to mycobacterial infection. To explore this issue, mice were infected with Toxocara canis and co-infected with M. tuberculosis . Mice infected with M. tuberculosis had high numbers of neutrophils and mononuclear cells within the alveolar spaces, with increased parenchymal interferon (IFN)-γ levels. However, in Toxocara -infected mice we detected increased eosinophil numbers in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and increased parenchymal levels of interleukin (IL)-5. In co-infected mice the BALF demonstrated enhanced eosinophil influx with decreased neutrophil and mononuclear cell accumulation. However, co-infected mice had similar mycobacterial proliferation in their lungs accompanied by similar histopathological changes and similar cytokine/nitric oxide production compared with Mycobacterium -only–infected mice. Our results suggest that T. canis infection does not necessarily lead to increased susceptibility to pulmonary tuberculosis.