INCREASED RESISTANCE TO TAENIA-CRASSICEPS MURINE CYSTICERCOSIS IN QA-2 TRANSGENIC MICE

We previously reported important differences in resistance to Taenia c rassiceps murine cysticercosis between BALB/c substrains. It was sugge sted that resistance might correlate with expression of the nonclassic class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) Qa-2 antigen; BALB/cAn N is Qa-2 negative and highly susceptible to T. crassiceps, whereas BA LB/cJ expresses Qa-2 and is highly resistant, In this study, we invest igated the role of Qa-2 in mediating resistance to cysticercosis by li nkage analysis and infection of Qa-2 transgenic mice. In BALB/cAnN x ( C57BL/6J x BALB/cAnN)F-1, and BALB/cAnN x (BALB/cJ x BALB/cAnN)F-1 bac kcrosses, the expression of Qa-2 antigen correlated with resistance to cysticercosis. Significantly fewer parasites recovered from infected Qa-2 transgenic male and female mice than from nontransgenic mice of s imilar genetic background. These results clearly demonstrate that the Qa-2 MHC antigen is involved in resistance to T. crassiceps cysticerco sis.