Abstract
Chronic infection with the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii produces an accumulation of cysts in the brain and muscle, causing tissue damage. The cysts in the brain motor regions affect some kinematic locomotion parameters in the host. To localize the brain cysts from Toxoplasma gondii and study the changes in kinematic locomotion in C57BL/6 mice. Female adult C57BL/6 mice were infected orally with 30 ME-49 Toxoplasma gondii cysts. An uninfected group (n = 7) and two infected groups, examined 15 and 40 days postinfection, were used for this study. To evaluate kinematic locomotion, the mice were marked with indelible ink on the iliac crest, hip, knee, ankle, and phalangeal metatarsus of the left and right hindlimbs. At least three recordings were carried out to obtain videos of the left and right hindlimbs. Mice were video recorded at 90 fps at a resolution of 640 × 480 pixels while walking freely in a transparent Plexiglass tunnel. We measured the hindlimb pendular movement and the hindlimb transfer [linear displacement] curves for each step and evaluated them statistically with Fréchet dissimilarity tests. Afterward, the mice were sacrificed, and the brain, heart, skeletal muscle, lung, liver, and kidney were obtained. The different tissues were stained with hematoxylin and eosin for analysis with optical microscopy. Topographic localization of the cysts was made using bregma coordinates for the mouse brain. The cysts were distributed in several brain regions. In one mouse, cyst accumulation occurred in the hippocampus, coinciding with an alteration in foot displacement. The step length was different among the different studied groups.
Highlights
Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite that infects both humans and animals
Chronic infection causes the formation of cysts in the muscle and brain
Cysts were harvested from infected brain mice
Summary
Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite that infects both humans and animals. Toxoplasma is transmitted orally, through a transplacental pathway or blood transfusion or via transplant [1]. A third of the world’s population has been affected by this parasite. T. gondii reproduces sexually in the small intestine of the cat, forming immature oocysts that are eliminated in the cat’s feces. Once mature, it is highly infectious via contaminated food ingestion. The asexual reproductive cycle of T. gondii is binary, forming tachyzoites. Chronic infection causes the formation of cysts in the muscle and brain
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