Microsporidia are obligate intracellular parasites that cause opportunistic infections in immunocompromised patients. The role of two main T cell subsets in anti-microsporidial immunity has been studied using an Encephalitozoon cuniculi-severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mouse model. Whereas SCID mice reconstituted with CD4+ T lymphocyte-depleted naive BALB/c splenocytes resolved the infection, adoptive transfer of CD8+ T cell-depleted splenocytes failed to protect the animals against a lethal E. cuniculi infection. Splenocytes from E. cuniculi-immune mice specifically killed syngeneic infected macrophages in a short-term 51Cr-release assay. These results suggest the crucial role of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in the protection against E. cuniculi infection.

Institute of Parasitology Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Faculty of Biological Sciences University of South Bohemia Branisovská 31 370 05 Ceské Budejovice Czech Republic

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Chronic Infections in Mammals Due to Microsporidia

Latent microsporidiosis caused by Encephalitozoon cuniculi in immunocompetent hosts: a murine model demonstrating the ineffectiveness of the immune system and treatment with albendazole

Pure CD4+ T lymphocytes fail to protect perorally infected SCID mice from lethal microsporidiosis caused by Encephalitozoon cuniculi