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Tumor necrosis factor alpha is a key mediator in the regulation of experimental Trypanosoma brucei infections

par Magez, Stefan;Radwanska, Magdalena ;Beschin, Alain ;Sekikawa, Kenji;De Baetselier, Patrick
Référence Infection and immunity, 67, 6, page (3128-3132)
Publication Publié, 1999-06

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

In order to evaluate during experimental Trypanosoma brucei infections the potential role of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in the host- parasite interrelationship, C57BL/6 TNF-α knockout mice (TNF-α(-/-)) as well as C57BL/6 wild-type mice were infected with pleomorphic T. brucei AnTat 1.1 E parasites. In the TNF-α(-/-) mice, the peak levels of parasitemia were strongly increased compared to the peak levels recorded in wild-type mice. The increased parasite burden did not reflect differences in clearance efficacy or in production of T. brucei-specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG antibodies. Trypanosome-mediated immunopathological features, such as lymph node-associated immunosuppression and lipopolysaccharide hypersensitivity, were found to be greatly reduced in infected TNF-α(-/-) mice. These results demonstrate that, during trypanosome infections, TNF-α is a key mediator involved in both parasitemia control and infection- associated pathology.