The Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol 31, Issue 3 191-194, Copyright © 1990 by Society for General Microbiology
Comparison of host responses induced by Salmonella typhimurium infection in genetically resistant and susceptible mice
M. Takahashi, T. Ushijima and A. Seto
Department of Microbiology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Japan.
A/J and BALB/c mice differ genetically in their resistance to the
facultative intracellular bacterium Salmonella typhimurium. We compared the
responses of these strains of mice to a virulent S. typhimurium infection.
BALB/c mice mobilised more peritoneal exudate cells in response to the
infection than did A/J mice 30 h after infection, but the increase in
bacterial counts in the livers and spleens of BALB/c mice was 10-fold
higher than in A/J mice. The response to Concanavalin A (Con A) of spleen
cells from BALB/c mice was depressed, and both L3T4+ and Lyt-2+ T cell
subpopulations were decreased following the infection, whereas the response
to Con A of A/J mice was increased and the T cell subpopulations were not
altered significantly. These results suggest that A/J mice respond more
actively to S. typhimurium infection than do BALB/c mice, and this may be
related to the natural resistance of mice.
