Gastric cryptosporidia only inhabit the glandular part of the stomach of all age categories of their hosts and can cause chronic life-long infections independent of a host's immune status. The immune response in the stomach mucosa during the primary infection and re-infection with Cryptosporidium muris (TS03 and CB03) in immunocompetent BALB/c mice was characterized using flow cytometry analysis and measurement of IFN-gamma and IL10 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Significantly, elevated migration of T lymphocytes (more than 1,000-fold), especially CD8+ T lymphocytes, to the stomach mucosa occurred during primary infection and persisted for more than 2 months after its resolution. The ex vivo cultures of splenocytes revealed very low levels of IFN-gamma production during the course of the primary infection (0.5 ng/ml), whereas in the following re-exposure to the parasites, the concentration of IFN-gamma rapidly increased 22-fold. Although the two parasite strains that were tested were genetically distinct, they yielded similar results in the induction of cellular immune responses, suggesting that these patterns are not unique to a single parasite strain. These results imply that the CD8+ T lymphocytes are involved in the immune response to gastric cryptosporidiosis and could play an important role in the elimination of C. muris infection in mice.

Faculty of Science University of South Bohemia in Ceské Budejovice Branisovská 31 370 05 Ceské Budejovice Czech Republic

See more in PubMed

Parasitol Today. 1999 Dec;15(12):483-7 PubMed

Appl Environ Microbiol. 2005 Aug;71(8):4446-54 PubMed

Comp Med. 2000 Jun;50(3):270-6 PubMed

Infect Immun. 2005 Dec;73(12):8425-8 PubMed

Curr Opin Immunol. 2006 Feb;18(1):31-8 PubMed

Parasitol Res. 2007 Jan;100(2):213-7 PubMed

Adv Parasitol. 1998;40:87-119 PubMed

J Immunol. 1991 Aug 1;147(3):1014-22 PubMed

Infect Immun. 1996 Jul;64(7):2556-62 PubMed

Infect Immun. 1994 Feb;62(2):697-9 PubMed

Folia Parasitol (Praha). 1985;32(1):50 PubMed

Microbes Infect. 2002 Aug;4(10):1067-80 PubMed

Vet Parasitol. 2008 May 31;153(3-4):363-7 PubMed

Parasite Immunol. 1995 Sep;17(9):459-64 PubMed

J Immunol Methods. 1996 Jul 17;194(1):35-48 PubMed

Korean J Parasitol. 1995 Dec;33(4):377-82 PubMed

Vet Parasitol. 2009 Jul 7;163(1-2):33-8 PubMed

Infect Immun. 1997 Aug;65(8):3074-9 PubMed

Infect Immun. 1984 Mar;43(3):856-9 PubMed

J Immunol Methods. 1999 Apr 22;224(1-2):111-27 PubMed

Infect Immun. 1990 Apr;58(4):961-9 PubMed

Vet Parasitol. 2007 Mar 31;144(3-4):208-21 PubMed

Infect Immun. 2008 Jan;76(1):23-9 PubMed

Microbiol Rev. 1986 Dec;50(4):458-83 PubMed

J Infect Dis. 1991 Jun;163(6):1297-304 PubMed

J Eukaryot Microbiol. 1996 Sep-Oct;43(5):89S PubMed

Infect Immun. 1994 Jun;62(6):2289-94 PubMed

Infect Immun. 1992 Aug;60(8):3325-31 PubMed

Eukaryot Cell. 2009 Apr;8(4):429-36 PubMed

Vet Parasitol. 2007 Oct 21;149(1-2):77-84 PubMed

Cryptosporidium mortiferum n. sp. (Apicomplexa: Cryptosporidiidae), the species causing lethal cryptosporidiosis in Eurasian red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris)

Cryptosporidium proliferans n. sp. (Apicomplexa: Cryptosporidiidae): Molecular and Biological Evidence of Cryptic Species within Gastric Cryptosporidium of Mammals

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