The acute phase of experimental infection with Trypanosoma cruzi is more severe in mice monoassociated with strict anaerobic bacteria.

1. The influence of some components of the normal human intestinal flora on the acute phase of experimental infection with strain CL of Trypanosoma cruzi was studied in 30-day-old germ-free or gnotobiotic CFW (LOB) mice monoassociated with Bacteroides fragilis, Peptostreptococcus sp or Clostridium sp by intragastric inoculation of 10(6) bacteria 10 days before the intraperitoneal infection with 5 x 10(3) trypomastigotes/g body weight. 2. Significantly earlier parasitemia peak and mortality were observed in Bacteroides fragilis- and Clostridium-associated mice (16.75 +/- 0.96 and 15.00 +/- 1.15 days, respectively) when compared with germfree animals (18.83 +/- 1.17 days). More precocious mortality (10.40 +/- 2.06 days) and, curiously, much lower blood parasitemia were observed in Peptostreptococcus-associated mice than in other gnotobiotic mice. 3. The extent of cardiac tissue parasitism decreased in the following order: germfree, B. fragilis-associated, Clostridium-associated, and Peptostreptococcus-associated animals. The levels of inflammatory reaction decreased in the following order: germfree, Peptostreptococcus-associated, Clostridium-associated, and B. fragilis-associated mice. 4. These results show that the acute phase of experimental infection with T. cruzi was more severe in mice associated with strict anaerobic bacteria when compared with germfree animals. This suggests that a normal intestinal flora may be another factor, in addition to nutritional and genetic factors, responsible for the different susceptibility of organisms of the same species infected with T. cruzi.