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Infection and Immunity, November 1998, p. 5477-5484, Vol. 66, No. 11
Division of Comparative Medicine,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
Received 6 January 1998/Returned for modification 17 April
1998/Accepted 31 July 1998
Hepatitis, proliferative typhlitis, and colitis were characterized
in young adult and older SCID/NCr mice naturally infected with
Helicobacter hepaticus. Liver lesions consisted of Kupffer, Ito, and oval cell hyperplasia along with multifocal to coalescing coagulative hepatocyte necrosis. Numerous Warthin-Starry-positive bacteria were observed in the parenchyma, and there were minimal to
mild accumulations of monocytic cells and neutrophils. Proliferative typhlitis was characterized by moderate to marked mucosal epithelial cell hyperplasia with mild monocytic and neutrophilic infiltration. Minimal to mild colitis with mucosal epithelial cell hyperplasia of the
colon was most marked in older mice. Comparable gastrointestinal lesions were not observed in uninfected control SCID/NCr mice. H. hepaticus was cultured from fetal viscera of 2 of 11 pups sampled late in gestation from infected SCID/NCr females, suggesting
transplacental infection of H. hepaticus. As expected, most
of the naturally infected SCID/NCr mice had no serum immunoglobulin G
response against H. hepaticus. These findings contrast with
those in infected immunocompetent A/JCr mice, which develop a
significant immune response to H. hepaticus associated with
prominent multifocal mononuclear cell infiltrates in the liver, with
only rare bacteria observable at the periphery of inflammatory foci or
in the biliary canaliculi. The results demonstrate that chronic
inflammatory and proliferative lesions simultaneously affecting the
liver, cecum, and colon are associated with natural infection of
SCID/NCr mice with H. hepaticus and that lesions are
progressive with age. Concurrent infection with H. hepaticus may confound studies that have been attributed to
similar lesions due to other experimental manipulations of SCID/NCr
mice.
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
SCID/NCr Mice Naturally Infected with
Helicobacter hepaticus Develop Progressive Hepatitis,
Proliferative Typhlitis, and Colitis

*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Division of
Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Bldg. 16-825C, Cambridge, MA 02139. Phone: (617)
253-1757. Fax: (617) 258-5708. E-mail: jgfox{at}mit.edu.
Present address: Animal Resources Center, University of Chicago,
Chicago, IL 60637.
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