CELLULAR IMMUNE-RESPONSE OF MASTOMYS AND GERBILS IN EXPERIMENTAL FILARIASIS

OBJECTIVE To determine mitogenic and antigen-specific cellular immune responses of two species of rodents, viz. Meriones ungruiculatus and M astomys coucha to assess the usefulness of the A. viteae/Mastomys mode l for cellular immune studies in experimental filariasis. METHODS Lymp hocyte blast transformation test (LTT) using spleen cells of normal an d A. viteae infected animals. RESULTS The proliferative response of ge rbils was much higher than that of Mastomys to both ConA and filarial antigens. Cells of both species of rodents did not respond to microfil arial (mf) antigen, however, their mitogenic response differed during infection. Some degree of nonspecific suppression was observed in gerb ils during prepatent and patent stages of infection, while Mastomys re vealed highest proliferation during patent microfilaraemia. Mastomys c ells did not respond to adult or mf antigen, while adult-specific prol iferation was detected in the case of gerbils. CONCLUSION The A. vitea e/gerbil model shows more similarity to human filarial infection regar ding cellular immune response. Markedly low responsiveness of a high p ercentage of Mastomys and wide variations in the cellular response to nonspecific mitogen limit the usefulness of Mastomys coucha in immunol ogical studies, especially cellular immunity.