The in vitro response to mitogens of leucocytes from cattle infected with Trypanosoma congolense
Masake, R.A.; Pearson, T.W.; Wells, P.; Roelants, G.E.
Clinical and Experimental Immunology 43(3): 583-589
1981
ISSN/ISBN: 0009-9104 PMID: 7285394 Document Number: 170520
The in vitro proliferative response of bovine leukocytes from peripheral blood to LPS was monitored during the course of infection with T. congolense. The stimulatory effect of LPS and PWM on PBL was significantly decreased in infected cattle while the reduction of Con A stimulatory response was less marked. There was a high background unstimulated leukocyte proliferation from infected cattle. This increase in background counts correlated with the parasitemia in that both features were abolished by treatment with the trypanocidal drug Berenil (4,4'-diamidino-diazoaminobenzene-diacetamide acetone). Trypanosome co-cultivation with PBL from normal cattle did not depress the responses of the latter to mitogens and trypanosomes maintained in a cell-free medium failed to incorporate 14C-thymidine under the conditions used.