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PubMed1984

Trypanosoma lewisi: the effect of thymectomy on the production of ablastin and the termination of the parasitaemia in infected rats.

This study investigated the effect of the depletion of T lymphocytes on the production of ablastin and the termination of the parasitaemias in Porton strain rats infected with Trypanosoma lewisi. Weanling rats were thymectomised or sham-thymectomised and then X-irradiated. After allowing 96 days for recovery from these procedures the rats were infected with T. lewisi. The rats were considered to be T lymphocyte depleted if they were unable to mount an antibody response to sheep red blood cells before the infection, a delayed type hypersensitivity response to trypanosomal antigen after they had cleared the infection, and if they succumbed to subsequent challenge with an intracellular bacterial parasite, Salmonella typhimurium C5. The T lymphocyte depleted rats were found to have no macroscopic thymus remnants visible at autopsy. The sham-thymectomised and unoperated control rats retained all the T lymphocyte functions tested for. There was no difference between the control and the T lymphocyte depleted rats in the ability to eliminate the parasite following infection with T. lewisi. Ablastin titres in the serum, measured by a sensitive in vitro assay, were found to be the same in each of the groups of rats tested, regardless of their T lymphocyte status. It is concluded that T lymphocytes are not essential for rats to eliminate a T. lewisi infection, nor for the production of ablastin.

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