Biomedical and Environmental Sciences 2014-09-01

Pulmonary immune responses to Aspergillus fumigatus in rats.

Ivana Mirkov, Amal Atia Mhfuod El-Muzghi, Jelena Djokic, Marina Ninkov, Aleksandra Popov Aleksandrov, Jasmina Glamoclija, Milena Kataranovski

Index: Biomed. Environ. Sci. 27(9) , 684-94, (2014)

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Abstract

To evaluate immunologic mechanisms underlying Aspergillus fumigatus pulmonary infections in immunocompetent Dark Agouti (DA) and Albino Oxford (AO) rats recognized as being susceptible to some inflammatory diseases in different manners.Lung fungal burden (quantitative colony forming units, CFU, assay), leukocyte infiltration (histology, cell composition) and their function (phagocytosis, oxidative activity, CD11b adhesion molecule expression) and cytokine interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and interleukin-17 and -4 (IL-17 and IL-4) lung content were evaluated following infection (intratracheally, 1x10(7) conidia).Slower reduction of fungal burden was observed in AO rats in comparison with that in DA rats, which was coincided with less intense histologically evident lung cell infiltration and leukocyte recovery as well as lower level of most of the their activities including intracellular myeloperoxidase activity, the capacity of nitroblue tetrazolium salt reduction and CD11b adhesion molecule expression (except for phagocytosis of conidia) in these rats. Differential patterns of changes in proinflammatory cytokine levels (unchanged levels of IFN-γ and transient increase of IL-17 in AO rats vs continuous increase of both cytokines in DA rats) and unchanged levels of IL-4 were observed.Genetically-based differences in the pattern of antifungal lung leukocyte activities and cytokine milieu, associated with differential efficiency of fungal elimination might be useful in the future use of rat models in studies of pulmonary aspergillosis.Copyright © 2014 The Editorial Board of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences. Published by China CDC. All rights reserved.