SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.28 issue4Successful in vitro culture of Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes author indexsubject indexarticles search
Home Pagealphabetic serial listing  

Services on Demand

Journal

Article

Indicators

Related links

  • On index processCited by Google
  • Have no similar articlesSimilars in SciELO
  • On index processSimilars in Google

Share


Biomédica

Print version ISSN 0120-4157On-line version ISSN 2590-7379

Abstract

BARRERA, Yuli Katherine et al. Evaluation of TcH2AF-R and S35-S36 primers in PCR tests for the detection of Trypanosoma cruzi in mouse cardiac tissue. Biomédica [online]. 2008, vol.28, n.4, pp.616-626. ISSN 0120-4157.

Introduction. Heart transplant is a therapeutic option in the treatment of chagasic cardiomyopathy. For early detection of Chagas reactivation cases, the use of PCR tests using endomyocardial biopsies has been proposed. Development of an animal model will be the first step in evaluating the applicability of this approach. Objective. PCR tests based on the TcH2AF-R and S35-S36 primers were evaluated for the detection of T. cruzi in heart tissue of mice experimentally infected with the parasite. Materials and methods. Two groups of ICR mice of 15 and 10 individuals were infected by intraperitoneal injection with 0.3 ml of PBS containing 1x106 trypomastigotes of the MHOM/CO/2001/D.A. (T. cruzi I) strain or 1x104 trypomastigotes of MHOM/BR/00/Y (T. cruzi II) strain. Parasitemia and cardiac parasitic infection were determined at 30, 60 (acute model), 100 and 150 (chronic model) days by means of histopathological examination and by PCR, using the TcH2AF-R and S35-S36 primers. Results. The histopathological findings revealed alterations in the heart and the presence of intracellular amastigotes in acute and chronic models. In contrast to parasitemia levels and histopathological analyses, S35-S36 PCR detected infections in mice that were infected with either parasite strain. TcH2AF-R PCR detected T. cruzi I-infected mice earlier and more frequently than inspection for parasitemia or histopathological examination. Conclusions. Applying PCR tests with both primers proved superior for Chagas disease confirmation over currently standard detection methods.

Keywords : Trypanosoma cruzi; Chagas disease; Chagas cardiomyopathy; polymerase chain reaction.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )

 

Creative Commons License All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License