03894nas a2200493   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653001200055653002000067653001800087653002700105653001600132653003800148653001100186653004200197653002300239653002100262653001900283653001900302653001200321653001000333653000900343653000900352653002300361653002500384653002500409653005200434653001900486653001900505653001600524653003700540653001100577100001100588700001200599700001200611700001400623700001600637245013900653856004100792300001100833490000700844520253500851022001403386       1998                            d  c1998 Dec10aAnimals10aCells, Cultured10aCulture Media10aDisease Susceptibility10aDNA Primers10aEnzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay10aFemale10aGene Expression Regulation, Bacterial10aHistocytochemistry10aInterferon-gamma10aInterleukin-1210aInterleukin-1810aleprosy10aLiver10aMale10aMice10aMice, Inbred C57BL10aMice, Mutant Strains10aMycobacterium leprae10aReverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction10aRNA, Bacterial10aRNA, Messenger10aSex Factors10aSpecific Pathogen-Free Organisms10aSpleen1 aYogi Y1 aEndoh M1 aBanba T1 aOkamura H1 aNomaguchi H00aSusceptibility to Mycobacterium leprae of ALY (alymphoplasia) mice and IFN-gamma induction in the culture supernatant of spleen cells.  uhttp://ila.ilsl.br/pdfs/v66n4a04.pdf  a464-740 v663 a<p>The aly/aly (alymphoplasia) mice from a mutation of a colony of the C57BL/6J mouse strain, which has a systemic absence of lymph nodes and Peyer's patches, are deficient in both T- and B-cell-mediated immune functions. We have undertaken a comparison of susceptibility to Mycobacterium leprae of ALY (aly/aly, aly/+) mice with C57BL/6J mice. The aly/aly mouse was found to have an excellent high susceptibility to M. leprae with no distinction between female and male. The aly/+ mouse also was more susceptible to M. leprae at an earlier stage than the C57BL/6J mouse. Therefore, we examined and compared the cytokine gene expression and gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) induction in the splenocytes of ALY mice. The expression of interleukin 4 (IL-4), IL-10 and IL-12 mRNA was weakly stimulated with ML-lysate in inoculated aly/aly mice but IL-2, IL-6, IGIF/IL-18 and IFN-gamma mRNA were not observed. None of the cytokine genes used appeared, except the mRNA for IL-1-alpha, when uninfected cultured spleen cells were stimulated with ML-lysate. Also, IFN-gamma production was not induced. However, the appearance of these cytokine genes was observed when stimulated with concanavalin A (ConA), and IFN-gamma production was also induced in the culture supernatant by aly/+ and even aly/aly mice stimulated with ConA. To examine the reason why IFN-gamma cannot be produced by splenocytes of ALY mice inoculated with M. leprae, we detected cytokine gene expression and IFN-gamma induction in the presence of recombinant murine IL-12 or IGIF/IL-18. IL-2 mRNA expression was detected in all of the mice tested in the presence of IL-12 but not in aly/aly mice under IGIF/IL-18, and iNOS mRNA expression was not observed in aly/aly mice under IL-12 or IGIF/IL-18. IL-4 and IL-10 mRNA were detected by aly/aly mice only by exposure to IGIF/IL-18. In culture, the supernatant with ML antigens of the aly/aly mice did not produce IFN-gamma in spite of the presence of IL-12 and IGIF/IL-18, while IFN-gamma was weakly induced in aly/+ mice stimulated with ML-lysate and in the presence of IGIF/IL-18. Nevertheless, IFN-gamma production was observed in splenocytes of the aly/aly mice stimulated with ConA and also with IGIF/IL-18 plus anti-CD3 antibody. Our results suggest that ALY mice might be showing a high susceptibility to M. leprae because of deficient priming for activation of T cells with the leprosy bacilli infection. Moreover, it is possible that the phagocytic activities of the macrophages of ALY mice are also impaired.</p>  a0148-916X