ABSTRACT
Objective To establish a Chinese hamster model of babesia infection, to find the changing pattern of organs and biochemical parameters in Chinese hamster infected with Babesia, and to promote the detection and treatment of babesiosis.Methods Healthy 5-week old Chinese hamsters were infected by intraperitoneal injection of blood containing Babesia.Blood samples were collected at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 23, 30, and 37 days after infection from 5 hamsters at each time point.Blood smears were prepared to detect the parasites using Giemsa staining.ELISA assay was employed to test the IL-2 concentration.The blood biochemical indexes were detected using an automatic biochemical analyzer.DNA was extracted from the whole blood and REAL-TIME RCR was performed to determine the reproduction of Babesia.Aftert the animals were sacrificed, the heart, lung, spleen, liver, and kidney were taken to analyze the changes of organ coefficients.Results The highest level of Babesia in the hamsters occurred on day 4 after the Babesia injection, and then showing a decreasing tendency.However, there was a transient increase on the 12th day after infection.The liver and spleen displayed most extensive response to the infection showing hepatomegaly and splenomegaly, but the variation of heart and kidneys coefficients was within the norm.There were prominent changes of blood cells, especially leucocytes, with two peaks at day 10 and 23 after the Babesia infection.The peak changes of blood biochemical indexes occurred at day 12 after infection.The concentration of serum IL-2 reached a peak on the 10th day after infection.Conclusions The Chinese hamsters display typical characteristics of tick-borne diseases such as hepatomegaly and splenomegaly.The immunological system is activated along with the infection and reaches a highest stage in the second week.Afterwards the Babesia can live in the hamster body for a long period of time.The results of this study provide useful information supporting further studies on the detection, treatment and prevention of Babesiosis.