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Infection and Immunity, December 2006, p. 6656-6664, Vol. 74, No. 12
0019-9567/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.00984-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Infectious Disease and Pathology, P.O. Box 110880, Gainesville, Florida 32610-0880
Received 20 June 2006/ Returned for modification 20 July 2006/ Accepted 11 September 2006
Individuals with struvite uroliths are susceptible to recurrent urinary tract infections (UTI), sepsis, and renal disease. Unfortunately, little is known about the host-specific factors that predispose to this disease. In order to develop a rodent model that can address this problem, we inoculated female Fischer 344 (F344), Lewis (LEW), Sprague-Dawley (SD), and Wistar (WIS) rats with a host-adapted strain of Ureaplasma parvum. Animals were necropsied at 2 weeks postinoculation; 100% of F344, 42% of SD, 10% of LEW, and 10% of WIS rats remained infected. Severe bladder lesions and struvite calculi were seen in 64% of F344 rats; in other rat strains, bladder lesions were mild or absent. F344 rats with struvite uroliths had the highest urinary levels of proinflammatory cytokines, such as GRO/KC, interleukin-1
(IL-1
), and IL-1ß. F344 rats without struvite stones at necropsy had milder bladder lesions and significantly lower urinary levels of proinflammatory cytokines but a more prominent inflammatory response than did other rat strains. Based on our results, struvite stone formation is linked to a robust inflammatory response that does not resolve UTI but instead promotes damage to surrounding tissues.
Published ahead of print on 18 September 2006.
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