The zebrafish as a novel model for the in vivo study of Toxoplasma gondii replication and interaction with macrophages

ABSTRACT: Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite capable of invading any nucleated cell. Three main clonal lineages (type I, II, III) exist and murine models have driven the understanding of general and strain-specific immune mechanisms underlying Toxoplasma infection. However, murine models are limited for studying parasite-leukocyte interactions in vivo, and discrepancies exist between cellular immune responses observed in mouse versus human cells. Here, we developed a zebrafish infection model to study the innate immune response to Toxoplasma in vivo. By infecting the zebrafish hindbrain ventricle, and using high-resolution microscopy techniques coupled with computer vision driven automated image analysis, we reveal that Toxoplasma invades brain cells and replicates inside a para

ORGANISM(S): Danio rerio (zebrafish)

SUBMITTER: Nagisa Yoshida 

PROVIDER: S-BSST429 | bioimages |

REPOSITORIES: bioimages