Parasitological characteristics of Schistosoma mansoni infection in swiss mice with underlying malnutrition

• Autor(a) principal: Simões,Carla
• Data de Publicação: 2002
• Outros Autores: Neves,Renata Heisler, Barros,Lucas de Andrade, Brito,Patrícia Dias, Cravo,Cristiane Oliveira, Moura,Egberto Gaspar de, Machado-Silva,José Roberto
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
• Texto Completo: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762002000900027
• topic: Schistosoma mansoni; biological study; malnutrition; lactation; Swiss mice

The effects of a protein-restricted diet (8% protein, 81% carbohydrate and 11% lipids) on Schistosoma mansoni infectivity, fecal egg excretion and intestinal egg distribution in Swiss (SW) mice were studied. Pregnant mice received a deficient diet from the middle of gestation until delivery. Seven-days-old mice were exposed to 50 cercariae (BH strain, Brazil). Offspring mice had a free access to the deficient diet since lactation until adulthood. The controls were fed with a commercial mice diet. A parasitological examination was performed between six and eight weeks post-infection while both groups were necropsied one week later. Mice on the experimental diet showed a significant loss in body weight. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in pre-patent period, kinetics of egg excretion and worm recovery from mice on either diet. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were found concerning to the percentage of deposited eggs in the distal segment of the small intestine from hosts on the experimental diet.Our data suggest that experimental malnutrition induced for a long term has no detrimental effect on the acute schistosomiais infection in SW mice.