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Infection and Immunity, January 2000, p. 170-175, Vol. 68, No. 1
Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes
of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-0425
Received 23 June 1999/Returned for modification 18 August
1999/Accepted 11 October 1999
We have studied immune mechanisms responsible for control of acute
Giardia lamblia and Giardia muris infections in
adult mice. Association of chronic G. lamblia infection
with hypogammaglobulinemia and experimental infections of mice with
G. muris have led to the hypothesis that antibodies are
required to control these infections. We directly tested this
hypothesis by infecting B-cell-deficient mice with either G. lamblia or G. muris. Both wild-type mice and B-cell-deficient mice eliminated the vast majority of parasites between
1 and 2 weeks postinfection with G. lamblia. G. muris was
also eliminated in both wild-type and B-cell-deficient mice. In
contrast, T-cell-deficient and scid mice failed to control G. lamblia infections, as has been shown previously for
G. muris. Treatment of wild-type or B-cell-deficient mice
with antibodies to CD4 also prevented elimination of G. lamblia, confirming a role for T cells in controlling infections.
By infecting mice deficient in either
0019-9567/0/$04.00+0
T-Cell-Dependent Control of Acute Giardia
lamblia Infections in Mice

- or 
-T-cell receptor
(TCR)-expressing T cells, we show that the 
-TCR-expressing T
cells are required to control parasites but that the

-TCR-expressing T cells are not. Finally, infections in mice
deficient in production of gamma interferon or interleukin 4 (IL-4) and
mice deficient in responding to IL-4 and IL-13 revealed that neither
the Th1 nor the Th2 subset is absolutely required for protection from
G. lamblia. We conclude that a T-cell-dependent mechanism
is essential for controlling acute Giardia infections and
that this mechanism is independent of antibody and B cells.
*
Corresponding author. Present address: Dept. of
Biology, Reiss 306A, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057. Phone: (202) 687-9884. Fax: (202) 687-5662. E-mail:
sms3{at}gunet.georgetown.edu.
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