DETECTION OF PNEUMOCYSTIS-CARINII DNA BY PCR AMPLIFICATION IN VARIOUSRAT ORGANS IN EXPERIMENTAL PNEUMOCYSTOSIS

Pneumocystosis is usually a disease of the lungs, but the number of ca ses of extrapulmonary pneumocystosis has greatly increased during the AIDS epidemic, Much remains unknown about the frequency and mechanisms of dissemination, In the present study a systematic search for Pneumo cystis carinii by PCR with primers specific for mitochondrial rRNA was performed in the lung, liver, spleen and kidney of 12 immunosuppresse d rats and two immunocompetent rats, The amplified products were analy sed by Southern hybridisation with a digoxigenin-11-dUTP labeled probe , P. carinii DNA was found in lungs in all 14 rats and in at least one organ other than lung in 11 immunosuppressed rats and the two control rats, We suggest that extrapulmonary dissemination may not be an exce ptional phenomenon in the course of pneumocystosis, but rather part of the natural evolution of the disease.