ABSTRACT
The murine model of actinomycetoma offers the potential of studying many unknown aspects of this infection. In this work, the model was used to investigate the temporal humoral immune response to actinomycetoma agents. Groups of 7- to 9-week-old female BALB/c mice were inoculated in one of the hind footpads with one of four different Nocardia strains. To mimic the constant exposure of infected humans to the virulent soil inhabiting agents, a second injection consisting of live nocardiae in incomplete Freund's adjuvant was administered five months after the first one. Murine serum samples were collected throughout the study and their IgM and IgM titers were determined by ELISA and the Western blot assay. The results obtained indicate that the ELISA titers increased as the infection progressed and this correlated with a greater number of antigen bands being recognized in the blots. Overall, however, the ELISA titers were lower for the N. brasiliensis infected mice than those of the N. asteroides ones. This observation may be indicative of an immunosuppressive state and is worthy of further investigation
Subject(s)
Animals , Female , Mice , Disease Models, Animal , Mycetoma/immunology , Nocardia asteroides , Nocardia Infections/immunology , Antibodies, Bacterial/blood , Antibody Formation , Blotting, Western , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay , Immunoglobulin G/blood , Immunoglobulin M/blood , Mice, Inbred BALB C , Nocardia asteroides/immunology , Nocardia/immunology , Time FactorsABSTRACT
Coating of sterile glass beads with certain bacteria has provided a simple method for their low temperature storage. This procedure was applied to Nocardia sp., filamentous bacteria which are maintained by subculture on Sabouraud dextrose agar especially in clinical laboratories. The coating of glass beads by Nocardia sp. resulted in an easy and effective method to preserve the microorganisms at -76 degrees C