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. 1983 Nov;42(2):789–795. doi: 10.1128/iai.42.2.789-795.1983

Effect of Toxoplasma infection on the sensitivity of mouse thymocytes to natural killer cells.

T Kamiyama, M Tatsumi
PMCID: PMC264499  PMID: 6417022

Abstract

Thymocytes from mice 2 weeks after infection with Toxoplasma gondii resisted natural killer (NK) cell-mediated cytolysis in contrast to the high sensitivity of normal mouse thymocytes. The infected mouse thymocytes also failed to form conjugates with effector cells and to compete for cytolysis of NK sensitive targets. These effects were mediated, at least in part, by interferon-gamma because normal thymocytes became NK insensitive after incubation in the infected mouse serum which contained significant amount of interferon-gamma, and pH 2 treatment of the serum abolished the effect. An alternate possibility for the reduced NK sensitivity of the infected mouse thymocytes was the elimination of NK-sensitive cells from the thymus, since histopathological studies showed marked atrophy and clearance of NK-sensitive thymocytes in the cortex of thymuses of infected mice. Although T. gondii induced augmentation followed by suppression of the host splenic NK activity, it seems unlikely that this altered NK activity was responsible for the lowered NK sensitivity of the thymocytes.

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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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