EXPERIMENTAL-INFECTION OF ATHYMIC MICE WITH THE HUMAN MICROSPORIDIAN NOSEMA-CORNEUM

Athymic mice (BALB/c nu/nu/Ola/Hsd) were experimentally infected intra peritoneally with Nosema corneum spores. Infection was monitored in th e first and second weeks post-infection. The liver, spleen, kidney, in testine, lung, heart, brain and eye were collected. Quantification of infection in each organ using three different techniques gave approxim ately the same pattern of infection. Infection increased with time. Hi stological observations were made on the sites of infection in each or gan. All organs were infected, the liver being the most heavily infect ed. The eye was infected in the retina in contrast to the cornea which was the site of infection in the original host. The present study of N. corneum in athymic mice has shown that this system could also be us ed to study host-parasite relationships and serve as a model for testi ng therapeutic agents. Previously the only microsporidian serving as a suitable model for human microsporidiosis was Encephalitozoon cunicul i.