PMID: 9546353Apr 18, 1998Paper

Temporal expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and inducible nitric oxide synthase in experimental acute Chagasic cardiomyopathy

The American Journal of Pathology
B ChandrasekarG L Freeman

Abstract

To characterize the kinetics of myocardial cytokine and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression in acute Chagasic cardiomyopathy, we studied a rat model of acute Trypanosoma cruzi infection. Rats were euthanized 36 hours and 5, 10, and 15 days after infection, and hearts were collected for histology, mRNA, and protein analyses. Histological analysis of myocardium showed a progressive increase in the number of amastigotes and mononuclear inflammatory cells. Organisms were first detected 5 days after intraperitoneal inoculation as isolated nests and became numerous by day 15. Northern blot analysis of total RNA revealed no signal for interleukin (IL)-1beta or tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and a weak signal for IL-6 in control hearts. High levels of expression for the three genes were detected in the infected animals at 36 hours after infection. Although IL-1beta and IL-6 levels increased steadily up to 10 days, TNF-alpha levels were the highest at 5 days, remained high at 10 days, and declined thereafter. Western blot analysis showed similar results to that of mRNA expression. No signal was detected for iNOS in the controls, but both its mRNA and protein were found in the infected animals, with levels being highest ...Continue Reading

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