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Infection and Immunity, May 2000, p. 2979-2984, Vol. 68, No. 5
Kuzell Institute for Arthritis and Infectious
Disease, San Francisco, California
Received 28 June 1999/Returned for modification 18 August
1999/Accepted 18 January 2000
Central nervous system (CNS) infections caused by nontuberculous
mycobacteria have been described previously, especially in patients
with AIDS. To investigate specific aspects of the pathogenesis of this
entity, C57BL bg+/bg
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Invasion of the Brain and Chronic Central Nervous
System Infection after Systemic Mycobacterium avium
Complex Infection in Mice
mice were infected intravenously with Mycobacterium avium,
and cultures of blood and brain as well as histopathology examination of brain tissue were carried out at several time points up to 6 months
after infection. Low-grade inflammatory changes with small aggregates
of lymphocytes and macrophages as well as perivascular cuffing were
seen early in the infection. A small number of bacteria could be
observed in the parenchyma of the choroid plexus. Six months after
infection, numerous bacteria were present within the foamy macrophage
of the granulomatous lesions along the ventricle and meninges. None of
the mice developed clinical signs of meningitis or encephalitis or even
died spontaneously during the period of observation. Use of
CD18
/
knockout mice indicated that transport of the
bacterium within neutrophils or monocytes into the brain is unlikely.
Mild chronic CNS infection developed in the mice during sustained
systemic M. avium infection, similar to what has been
reported in most human cases.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Kuzell Institute
for Arthritis and Infectious Disease, 2200 Webster St., Suite 305, San
Francisco, CA 94115. Phone: (415) 561-1734. Fax: (415) 441-8548. E-mail: luizb{at}cooper.cpmc.org.
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