Cryptosporidium are protozoan parasites that infect the gastrointestinal epithelium of various vertebrate hosts. The genus has two major phylogenetic groups: a gastric group that infect the epithelium of the stomach and an intestinal group that infect the epithelium of the small and large intestine. Cryptosporidium are transmitted by the faecal-oral route and infect epithelial cells following excystation of the environmental oocyst stage. It has been proposed that excystation of intestinal species is triggered by exposure to the acidic stomach contents, although this has not been verified experimentally. This study aimed to determine whether exposure to stomach contents is necessary for in vivo infection by the intestinal species C. parvum and whether passage through the intestine is necessary for the gastric species C. proliferans to cause infection. It was shown that purified and non-purified oocysts of C. parvum were infectious for SCID mice following surgical inoculation directly into different parts of the small intestine, demonstrating that passage through the stomach is not necessary for infection by this intestinal species. Inoculation of the jejunum resulted in a course of infection similar to oral inoculation. Cryptosporidium proliferans was infectious for na?ve SCID mice following surgical extraction from the stomach of infected SCID mice, demonstrating that passage through the small intestine is not necessary for infection by this gastric species. However, surgical inoculation of C. proliferans oocysts directly into the intestinum tenue did not cause infection.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:252127 |
Date | January 2016 |
Creators | HAVRDOVÁ, Nikola |
Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
Language | Czech |
Detected Language | English |
Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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