Trypanosoma cruzi in the chicken model: Chagas-like heart disease in the absence of parasitism.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The administration of anti-trypanosome nitroderivatives curtails Trypanosoma cruzi infection in Chagas disease patients, but does not prevent destructive lesions in the heart. This observation suggests that an effective treatment for the disease requires understanding its pathogenesis.

Methodology/principal findings

To understand the origin of clinical manifestations of the heart disease we used a chicken model system in which infection can be initiated in the egg, but parasite persistence is precluded. T. cruzi inoculation into the air chamber of embryonated chicken eggs generated chicks that retained only the parasite mitochondrial kinetoplast DNA minicircle in their genome after eight days of gestation. Crossbreeding showed that minicircles were transferred ver

SUBMITTER: Teixeira AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3066158 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature