IMMUNE-RESPONSES TO FILARIAL INFECTION IN LABORATORY MICE

Models of filarial infection in laboratory inbred mice are valuable to ols for assessing the relevance of antifilarial immune responses in pr otection against these parasites. However, laboratory mice are not per missive for those filarial species which are known to infect humans. T herefore, immunity to the different stages of these filariae, i.e. inf ective third stage larvae (L3), adults and microfilariae, has been ana lyzed separately, as a surrogate approach. Although much information h as been gathered by analysis of immunity and intervention in particula r immune responses in these experimental systems, interference of diff erent stage-specific responses as well as modulation of filarial matur ation by the immune system cannot be assessed. A newly established inf ection model of filariasis, namely infection of laboratory mice with L itomosoides sigmodontis, accommodates the full developmental cycle of the parasite and may overcome this deficiency. Although the disadvanta ge of this latter model is that it deals with a filaria which is not p athogenic to man, it is the only model in which immunity can be analyz ed during maturation of infective larvae into adult worms, the period considered most important for vaccination studies.