Infection of organotypic slice cultures from rat central nervous tissue with Neospora caninum: an alternative approach to study host-parasite interactions

Vonlaufen, Nathalie; Gianinazzi, Christian; Müller, Norbert; Simon, Franziska; Björkman, Camilla; Jungi, Thomas W.; Leib, Stephen L.; Hemphill, Andrew (2002). Infection of organotypic slice cultures from rat central nervous tissue with Neospora caninum: an alternative approach to study host-parasite interactions. International journal for parasitology, 32(5), pp. 533-542. Elsevier 10.1016/S0020-7519(01)00351-4

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Neospora caninum is an apicomplexan parasite which has emerged as an important cause of bovine abortion worldwide. Abortion is usually triggered by reactivation of dormant bradyzoites during pregnancy and subsequent congenital infection of the foetus, where the central nervous system appears to be most frequently affected. We here report on an organotypic tissue culture model for Neospora infection which can be used to study certain aspects of the cerebral phase of neosporosis within the context of a three-dimensionally organised neuronal network. Organotypic slice cultures of rat cortical tissue were infected with N. caninum tachyzoites, and the kinetics of parasite proliferation, as well as the proliferation-inhibitory effect of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), were monitored by either immunofluorescence, transmission electron microscopy, and a quantitative PCR-assay using the LightCycler instrument, respectively. In addition, the neuronal cytoskeletal elements, namely glial acidic protein filaments as well as actin microfilament bundles were shown to be largely colocalising with the pseudocyst periphery. This organotypic culture model for cerebral neosporosis provides a system, which is useful to study the proliferation, ultrastructural characteristics, development, and the interactions of N. caninum within the context of neuronal tissue, which at the same time can be modulated and influenced under controlled conditions, and will be useful in the future to gain more information on the cerebral phase of neosporosis.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute for Infectious Diseases
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP) > Institute of Virology and Immunology
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP) > Institute of Parasitology

UniBE Contributor:

Müller, Norbert, Simon, Franziska, Jungi, Thomas, Leib, Stephen

Subjects:

500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
600 Technology > 630 Agriculture

ISSN:

0020-7519

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Stephen Leib

Date Deposited:

01 Sep 2014 10:11

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:34

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/S0020-7519(01)00351-4

PubMed ID:

11943226

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Neospora caninum, Neosporosis, Organotypic culture, Central nervous system, Quantitative polymerase chain reaction, Interferon-γ

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.52754

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/52754

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