Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis is associated with a variety of hematological abnormalities. In this study, we correlated the hematological changes in the peripheral blood of dogs naturally infected with Leishmania infantum (L. infantum) with the distribution of cell lineages and cytokine gene expression patterns in the bone marrow. Samples from 63 naturally semidomiciled dogs living in an endemic area of visceral leishmaniasis were analyzed. L. infantum infection was detected in 50 dogs (79.3%). Among those, 18 (32%) had positive splenic cultures and showed more clinical signs. They also had lower red blood cell counts and leukocytosis with an increased number of neutrophils and monocytes in peripheral blood compared to dogs negative to this test. L. infantum DNA was detected in the bone marrow of 8/14 dogs with positive splenic culture. Dogs with L. infantum infection in the bone marrow presented with histiocytosis (p = 0.0046), fewer erythroid cell clusters (p = 0.0127) and increased gene expression levels of IFN-γ (p = 0.0015) and TNF (p = 0.0091). The data shown herein suggest that inflammatory and cytokine gene expression changes in bone marrow may contribute to the peripheral blood hematological changes observed in visceral leishmaniasis.
Highlights
The zoonotic form of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is caused by Leishmania infantum and is distributed throughout Europe, the Americas, parts of Asia and Africa [1]
Leishmania infantum infection was detected by ELISA or spleen culture in 50/63 (79%)
We show that animals with active L. infantum infection had anemia, areas in Brazil
Summary
The zoonotic form of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is caused by Leishmania infantum and is distributed throughout Europe, the Americas, parts of Asia and Africa [1]. Some of these patients develop bleeding and secondary infections and eventually die of the disease [2,3]. Semidomiciled dogs, stray dogs living on the streets with little access to houses, food and water, play a crucial role in maintaining the disease in endemic regions; they are the main domestic reservoir and a source of infection for sand flies, which subsequently transmit the parasites to humans [4,5,6]. Canine visceral leishmaniasis (CanL) has been used as a model for better understanding the disease in humans, due to the similarity of clinical characteristics between them [7,8]. The study of CanL is relevant for the understanding of canine and human VL and to public health
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