Immunohistochemical study of schistosomal soluble egg antigen in male genital organs of schistosomiasis mansoni infected mice

In this study, 70 Swiss outbred mice were used for the demonstration of circulating soluble egg antigen [CSEA] in serum and testes of S. mansoni infected mice and to study the possible role of this antigen [CSEA] in the pathogenesis of reproductive organ lesions using two recently described monoclonal antibodies to repetitive carbohydrate epitopes of S. mansoni SEA. Ten mice as a control group and the other 60 mice were infected with 100 S. Mansoni cercariae per mouse by subcutaneous injection. One group was sacrificed in each of 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 weeks post-infection [PI], while the control mice were killed at one time. The sacrificed mice were bled and their sera were used for detecting CSEA by ELISA. The mean level of CSEA in the serum of infected mice started to appear six weeks PI and gradually increased till 16 weeks PI. This was coincided with the appearance of the fluorescent deposits in blood vessels of testis at eight weeks PI and later in the stroma of testis from the 10th week onwards

Cells involved in the regulation of the autoimmune response to rat male accessory glands

1. The immunization of Wistar rats with 5 mg of chemically modified rat male accessory glands saline extract (MRAG) incorporated into complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) induced a delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) response to rate male accessory glands (RAG). Pretreatment with peritoneal cells (PC) obtained from rats 2 h after an intraperitoneal (ip) injection of a partially purified fraction (FI) of RAG (FI-PC2h) suppressed the DTH response to MRAG after immunization with MRAG-CFA, while pretreatment with PC obtained 24 h after an ip injection of FI-RAG (FI-PC24h) induced potentiation of the DTH response to MRAG. 2. The injection of spleen mononuclear cells (SpM), obtained from rats rendered unresponsive to MRAG by pretreatment with FI-PC2h, into normal syngeneic recipients markedly prevented the DTH reaction to MRAG. The transfer of SpM cells from animals injected with FI-PC24h (potentiated animals) to suppressed recipients (recipients of FI-PC2h on days -10 and -3, prior to immunization with MRAG-CFA) showed that SpM cells did not eliminate the suppression state in these recipients, but when they were transferred to normal recipients, they were able to induce a positive response to RAG (P<0.005). 3. The study of the phenotypic characteristics of the SpM cells prior to transfer showed similar numbers of CD4 and IL-2R SpM cells in both potentiated and normal animals. However, the number of CD8 cells was significantly reduced in SpM cells from potentiated animals compared to that observed in SpM cells from normal animals (P<0.05)

Factores involucrados en la facilitación de la respuesta autoinmune de animales envejecidos / Factors involved in the enhancement of the autoinmune response in aging rats

Se demostró que el envejecimiento facilita la inducción de respuesta autoinmune contra glándulas accesorias sexuales masculinas de ratas (GA) y, además, que las células de bazo de animales de 12 meses fueron capaces de transferir el fenómeno a animales de 3 meses. En este trabajo se analizó el tipo celular involucrado en la mayor respuesta como así también la influencia del medio interno. Los estudios se realizaron mediante experimentos de transferencia de células y posterior inmunización de los receptores con autoantígenos (GA químicamente modificado) y heteroantígeno (albumina sérica humana ASH) incorporado en coadyuvante de Freund completo. la respuesta de DTH nivel de anticuerpo contra GA demostraron que las células monocleares de bazo están comprometidas en la facilitación de la respuesta. Estas células separadas en poblaciones enriquecidas en linfocitos T o B pierden esa capacidad. En cambio, la población enriquecida en macrófago transfirió un nível significativo de respuesta autoinmune, lográndose la transferencia total sólo con los tres tipos celulares juntos. La transferencia de células a ratas previamente irradiadas aportó evidencias del compromiso del medio interno del animal de 12 meses isoinmunizado a ASH no mostró diferencias entre los distintos grupos experimentales