Abstract
Nematode infections are a ubiquitous feature of vertebrate life. In nature, such nematode infections are acquired by continued exposure to infective stages over a prolonged period of time. By contrast, experimental laboratory infections are typically induced by the administration of a single (and often large) dose of infective stages. Previous work has shown that the size of an infection dose can have significant effects on anti-nematode immune responses. Here we investigated the effect of different infection regimes of Strongyloides ratti, comparing single and repeated dose infections, on the host immune response that was elicited. We considered and compared infections of the same size, but administered in different ways. We considered infection size in two ways: the maximum dose of worms administered and the cumulative worm exposure time. We found that both infection regimes resulted in Th2-type immune response, characterised by IL4 and IL13 produced by S. ratti stimulated mesenteric lymph node cells, anti-S. ratti IgG1 and intestinal rat mast cell protease II (RMCPII) production. We observed some small quantitative immunological differences between different infection regimes, in which the concentration of IL4, IL13, anti-S. ratti IgG1 and IgG2a and RMCPII were affected. However, these differences were quantitatively relatively modest compared with the temporal dynamics of the anti-S. ratti immune response as a whole.
Highlights
Laboratory models of nematode infection are widely used to investigate how the vertebrate immune system responds to nematode infection and to use this information to understand nematode infections, of humans, domestic and wild animals [1,2,3]
There are substantial differences between how nematode infections are naturally acquired by hosts and how nematode infections are initiated in the laboratory, characterised by trickle and single dose infection regimes, respectively
We have shown that the dose of S. ratti infections affects the host immune response, such that there was a Th1-type immune response for doses of 30 or fewer infective L3s (iL3s); at higher doses there was a T helper 2 (Th2)-type immune response [14]
Summary
Laboratory models of nematode infection are widely used to investigate how the vertebrate immune system responds to nematode infection and to use this information to understand nematode infections, of humans, domestic and wild animals [1,2,3]. A consistent concern is that the way in which infections are initiated in the laboratory may cause artefacts in the host-parasite interaction [4]. Laboratory infections are most often initiated with single, large doses of infective stages. A specific concern in the use of laboratory models to understand ‘natural’ infections, is whether infection regimes (e.g. multiple small doses compared with a single large dose) qualitatively and/or quantitatively affect the immune responses generated during these infections
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