Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T05:42:36.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Thymus-independent crypt hyperplasia and villous atrophy in the small intestine of mice infected with the trematode Echinostoma revolutum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

E. Bindseil
Affiliation:
Department of Pathology, Royal Veterinary andAgricultural University, 13 Bülowsvej, DK-1870 Copenhagen, Denmark, and
N. Ø. Christensen
Affiliation:
Danish Bilharziasis Laboratory, 1D Jægersborg allé, DK-2920 Charlottenlund, Denmark

Summary

Conventional mice and congenitally athymic, nude mice were infected with 20 metacercariae of the intestinal trematode Echinostoma revolutum. The sequential events in the pathological changes in the intestine were studied at different intervals post-infection. By day 11 onwards the conventional mice displayed dilatation of the region of the intestine which harboured the parasites. The mucosa in the dilated region showed marked crypt hyperplasia, villous atrophy and subepithelial fibrosis as the most conspicuous features which, together with a hypertrophy of the muscular layers, made the wall of the gut in the dilated region thicker than normal. The changes were thymus-independent as they were found to be as severe in the athymic, nude mice as in the conventional mice. The main histological features observed in the mice are discussed in relation to other conditions with similar changes, such as coeliac disease, nippostrongyliasis and trichinellosis. It is concluded that the present results support the view that there may be more than one effector mechanism of the change.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackert, J. E., Edgar, S. A. & Frick, L. P. (1939). Goblet cells and age resistance of animals to parasitism. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 58, 81–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asquith, P. (1974). Immunology. Clinics in Gastroenterology. Coeliac disease 3, 213–34.Google Scholar
Boray, J. C. (1959). Studies on intestinal amphistomosis in cattle. Australian Veterinary Journal 35, 282–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christensen, N. Ø., Nydal, R., Frandsen, F. & Nansen, P. (1981). Homologous immunotolerance and decreased resistance to Schistosoma mansoni in Echinostoma revolutum-infected mice. Journal of Parasitology 67, 164–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferguson, A. & Jarrett, E. E. (1975). Hypersensitivity reactions in the small intestine. I. Thymus dependence of experimental ‘partial villous atrophy’. Gut 16, 114–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hartong, W. A., Gourley, W. K. & Arvanitakis, C. (1979). Giardiasis: Clinical spectrum and functional—structural abnormalities of the small intestinal mucosa. Gastroenterology 77, 61–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hooper, B. E. & Haelterman, E. O. (1969). Lesions of the gastrointestinal tract of pigs infected with transmissible gastroenteritis. Canadian Journal of Comparative Medicine 33, 2936.Google ScholarPubMed
Manson-Smith, D. F., Bruce, R. G. & Parrott, D. M. V. (1979). Villous atrophy and expulsion of intestinal Trichinella spiralis are mediated by T cells. Cellular Immunology 47, 285–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Olson, L. J. & Richardson, J. A. (1968). Intestinal malabsorption of D-glucose in mice infected with Trichinella spiralis. Journal of Parasitology 54, 445–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Padykula, H. A., Strauss, E. W., Ladman, A. J. & Gardner, F. H. (1961). A morphological and histochemical analysis of the human jejunal epithelium in nontropical sprue. Gastroenterology 40, 735–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roberts-Thomson, I. C., Grove, D. I., Stevens, D. P. & Warren, K. S. (1976). Suppression of giardiasis during the intestinal phase of trichinosis in the mouse. Gut 17, 953–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roberts-Thomson, I. C. & Mitchell, G. F. (1978). Giardiasis in mice I. Prolonged infections in certain mouse strains and hypothymic (nude) mice. Gastroenterology 75, 42–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shiner, M. & Doniach, I. (1960). Histopathological studies in steatorrhea. Gastroenterology 38, 419–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sirag, S. B., Christensen, N. Ø., Frandsen, F., Monrad, J. & Nansen, P. (1980). Homologous and heterologous resistance in Echinostoma revolutum infections in mice. Parasitology 80, 479–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stephenson, L. S., Pond, W. G., Nesheim, M. C., Krook, L. P. & Crompton, D. W. T. (1980). Ascaris suum: Nutrient absorption, growth, and intestinal pathology in young pigs experimentally infected with 15-day-old larvae. Experimental Parasitology 49, 1525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swanson, V. L. & Thomassen, R. W. (1965). Pathology of the jejunal mucosa in tropical sprue. American Journal of Pathology 46, 511–51.Google ScholarPubMed
Symons, L. E. A. (1957). Pathology of infestation of the rat with Nippostrongylus muris (Yokogawa). I. Changes in the water content, dry weight and tissues of the small intestine. Australian Journal of Biological Sciences 10, 374–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Symons, L. E. A. (1969). Pathology of gastrointestinal helminthiasis. International Review of Tropical Medicine 3, 49100.Google Scholar
Symons, L. E. A. & Fairbairn, D. (1963). Biochemical pathology of the rat jejunum parasitized by the nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. Experimental Parasitology 13, 284304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Townley, R. R. W., Cass, M. H. & Anderson, C. M. (1964). Small intestinal mucosal patterns of coeliac disease and idiopathic steatorrhea seen in other situations. Gut 5, 51–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watson, A. J. & Wright, N. A. (1974). Morphology and cell kinetics of the jejunal mucosa in untreated patients. Clinics in Gastroenterology. Coeliac disease. 3, 1131.Google Scholar
Weinstein, W. M., Saunders, D. R., Tytgat, G. N. & Rubin, C. E. (1970). Collagenous sprue-an unrecognised type of malabsorption. New England Journal of Medicine 283, 12971301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar