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. 1985 Oct;50(1):183–189. doi: 10.1128/iai.50.1.183-189.1985

Evolution of inflammatory response and cellular immune responses in a murine model of disseminated blastomycosis.

G S Deepe Jr, C L Taylor, W E Bullock
PMCID: PMC262154  PMID: 4044032

Abstract

A reproducible model of disseminated blastomycosis was established in C57BL/6 mice by intravenous injection of 10(6) yeast-phase Blastomyces dermatiditis organisms. The infection progressed over 5 weeks to involve lungs, brains, superficial fascia, livers, and spleens of mice. By week 5, there was a greater number of organisms in lungs and brains than in livers and spleens. The tissue response in lungs, brains, and livers progressed from acute neutrophilic invasion before week 1 to pyogranuloma formation by week 5. Lymph nodes and spleens were remarkably spared. By week 5, infected mice became anergic to intradermal challenge with both specific Blastomyces antigen and a nonspecific antigen (sheep erythrocytes). At this time, the response to concanavalin A or phytohemagglutinin by splenocytes was markedly less than that of normal controls. Likewise, the plaque-forming cell response to sheep erythrocytes by splenocytes from infected mice was diminished. In coculture studies, splenocytes from 5-week-infected mice reduced the plaque-forming cell response by normal splenocytes. The development of this murine model should prove useful for elucidating the perturbations of immunoregulation associated with disseminated blastomycosis.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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