Abstract
The spirochetal pathogen Treponema pallidum causes 5 million new cases of venereal syphilis worldwide each year. One major obstacle to syphilis prevention and treatment is the lack of suitable experimental animal models to study its pathogenesis. Accordingly, in this study, we further evaluated the responses of mice to Treponema pallidum. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction showed that Treponema pallidum could colonize the heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, and testicles of C57BL/6 mice, and the organism may be able to rapidly penetrate the blood-brain barrier in mice by 24 h after infection. In subsequent rabbit infectivity tests, we observed evident signs of the microorganism in the mouse lymph node suspension. After infection, bacterial loads were higher in the tissues than in the blood of C57BL/6 mice. Moreover, a significant Th1 immune response was recorded by cytokine assays. Flow cytometric analysis suggested an obvious increase in the proportion of CD3+ T and CD4+ T cells in the spleen cells in the infected mice. Thus, improving our understanding of the response of C57BL/6 mice for Treponema pallidum will help to comprehensive elucidate the pathogenic mechanisms of this bacterium and lay the foundation for the development of a new research model of Treponema pallidum.
Highlights
Syphilis, a chronic, multisystemic sexually transmitted disease, is caused by the spirochetal bacterium Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum (T. pallidum)
Treponemal DNA concentrations in blood samples were measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) at different times after injection
Different animal models have been tested, including mice; it seems that no model has been shown to be better than rabbits
Summary
A chronic, multisystemic sexually transmitted disease, is caused by the spirochetal bacterium Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum (T. pallidum). A chronic, multisystemic sexually transmitted disease, is caused by the spirochetal bacterium Treponema pallidum subsp. Rabbits are the most commonly used animal model in studies of syphilis because the pathological changes and serological responses of rabbits after infection with T. pallidum are similar to those in humans. Treponema pallidum Dissemination in Mice manipulation of rabbits. Mice, which have a well-defined genetic and immunological background, are frequently used for studies of many infectious diseases. Many studies of T. pallidum infection in inbred mice have been reported. T. pallidum has been shown to be able to infect mice and persist within mice. Infection in mice was not accompanied by skin lesions, as observed in other animal models [7,8,9], and no further studies have evaluated the merits and demerits of mice as subjects of T. pallidum
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