Observations on the Response of Dysgammaglobulinemic Chickens to Malarial Infection

Abstract

Neonatal chickens were surgically bursectomized and irradiated to produce adults which were agammaglobulinemic or hypogammaglobulinemic. Those birds and intact birds were compared as to certain host responses to Plasmodium gallinaceum infection. In altered birds, the parasitemia appeared later and rose more slowly and all untreated bursectomized birds died at a low parasitemia. Dysgammaglobulinemic birds treated with an antimalarial drug recovered and were resistant to reinfection; serum-soluble antigens, but no measurable antibody, were recovered from their blood. The pathogenesis of the disease differed from that in unaltered birds. The following differences were observed: the lamina propria of the small intestine was thickened; the epithelial cells of the lungs were enlarged and increased in numbers and there was thickening of the peribronchial and alveolar walls; the kidney had widespread but patchy infiltration of leukocytes, with many glomerular tufts completely filled; there was widespread focal lymphocytic infiltration of the liver; the spleen suffered proliferation of the reticulum, with a highly disturbed architecture, but had little hemozoin deposited; the brain showed limited early neuronal degeneration.