Shock response induced in rat brain and spleen during primary infection with Trichinella spiralis larvae

Abstract

An infection approach was adopted for examining consequential heat shock (HS) or stress response in brain and spleen tissues from Wistar rats. Stress in this system was due to interactions with the infecting helminth, Trichinella spiralis, or its body-dwelling larval stages, or products thereof. It was argued that in the infection model used, elements effecting stress in the brain would differ from those in the spleen. HS responses were measured by quantitation of 4 levels of HS proteins (HSP25, HSP60, HSP70 and HSP90) with time, in infected and uninfected rat tissues using an assay depending on immunoblotting specifically to detect the separate HSPs and image analysis to measure HSP content. In brain and spleen tissue from uninfected rats, a continuous expression of the above HSPs was observed at levels which hardly varied throughout the experiment. In contrast, HSP25, HSP60 and HSP70 levels in infected rat tissues varied and apparently depended on ‘infection cycle’-related events. Thus, an enhanced expression of HSP25 and HSP60 and of these plus HSP70 was observed at certain, yet different, time-points during infection in rat spleen and rat brain, respectively. Interestingly, HSP90 expression in spleen tissue from infected rats versus controls, was significantly reduced throughout the experiment suggesting some important (as yet undefined) role for HSP90 in the infection cycle. These studies seem to have provided evidence for the occurrence of soluble factors causing altered HSP expression at both sides of the blood-brain barrier in rats with a primary T. spiralis infection.