Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
4371657 | Experimental Parasitology | 2007 | 8 Pages |
Abstract
The effects of prolonged treatment with iron chelator (desferrioxamine) on the development of infection in mice inoculated with Y Trypanosoma cruzi were determined. Infected/treated mice presented lower levels of parasitemia and reduced mortality rate compared with infected/non-treated animals. The five out of twenty infected/treated mice that survived the acute phase of infection showed negative hemoculture and positive ELISA in the acute and chronic phases and positive PCR in the acute phase: in the chronic phase, three of the animals presented negative PCR. The single surviving infected/non-treated animal exhibited positive hemoculture, PCR and ELISA in both phases of infection. Infected groups presented lower levels of iron in the liver compared with treated/non-infected or non-treated/non-infected animals. The serum iron levels of the infected/non-treated group were higher on the 21st day post-infection in comparison with control and infected/treated groups. These results suggest that decrease of iron in the host leads to T. cruzi infection attenuation.
Keywords
Related Topics
Life Sciences
Immunology and Microbiology
Parasitology
Authors
Jerusa Marilda Arantes, Maria Lúcia Pedrosa, Helen Rodrigues Martins, Vanja Maria Veloso, Marta de Lana, Maria Terezinha Bahia, Washington Luiz Tafuri, Cláudia Martins Carneiro,