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Infection and Immunity, December 2000, p. 6561-6566, Vol. 68, No. 12
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Leishmania major Reaches Distant Cutaneous Sites Where It Persists Transiently while Persisting Durably in the Primary Dermal Site and Its Draining Lymph Node: a Study with Laboratory Mice

Luc Nicolas,* Sacha Sidjanski,dagger Jean-Hervé Colle, and Geneviève Milon

Unité d'Immunophysiologie et Parasitisme Intracellulaire, Institut Pasteur, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France

Received 3 May 2000/Returned for modification 14 June 2000/Accepted 6 September 2000

So far, studies of Leishmania persistence in mice have used injections of parasites administered either intravenously in the tail vein or subcutaneously in the footpad. These routes poorly reflect the natural conditions when the sandfly delivers metacyclic promastigotes intradermally. In this study B10D2 and BALB/c mice were inoculated within the ear dermis with 104 Leishmania major metacyclic promastigotes. The parasite load was monitored by quantitative PCR in different tissues from the dermal inoculation site to distant tissues. The two sites of multiplication and persistence of parasites were the site of L. major inoculation and the draining lymph node (DLN), with a different pattern in the two mouse inbred lines. These two organs were the only sites harboring parasites 12 months postinoculation, with the DLN of BALB/c mice harboring around 107 parasites, a stable load from months 3 to 12. In these two sites, 8 and 12 months after inoculation, interleukin 4 (IL-4), gamma interferon, and inducible nitric oxide synthase transcripts parallel the parasite load while IL-10 transcript levels remain high. In addition, at early time points until month 3, parasite DNA was also detected in distant tissues such as the contralateral noninoculated ear or the tail skin, indicating that blood was at least transiently disseminating the parasites. In contrast, L. major DNA in liver, spleen, and femoral bone marrow remained sporadic in mice of both lines. This study is discussed within the framework of Leishmania transmission from the vertebrate host to the sandfly vector, a complex process still poorly understood.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institut Pasteur, Unité d'Immunophysiologie et Parasitisme Intracellulaire, 25 rue du Dr Roux, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France. Phone: (33) 1 45 68 81 70. Fax: (33) 1 40 61 31 69. E-mail: lnicolas{at}pasteur.fr.

dagger Present address: Research Policy and Cooperation, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

Infection and Immunity, December 2000, p. 6561-6566, Vol. 68, No. 12
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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