Basophils and eosinophils in three strains of rats and in athymic (nude) rats following infection with the nematodes Nippostrongylus brasiliensis or Trichinella spiralis.

A previous report showed that infection with the nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis stimulates a basophilia as well as an eosinophilia in the blood of August rats. The present study shows that blood levels of basophils and eosinophils were increased in two other rat strains, one inbred and one outbred, after infection with N. brasiliensis, and infection of two inbred rat strains with Trichinella spiralis also stimulated a basophilia as well as an eosinophilia. No increase occurred in basophils or eosinophils in athymic (nude) rats infected with N. brasiliensis, although both these cell types were found in the blood of control, specific pathogen free, nude rats in numbers comparable to those in specific pathogen free, heterozygote controls of the same strain. Rat basophils usually have few granules and in blood smears often appear as if they were partly degranulated. Basophils from uninfected nude rats contained more negative than positive staining granules compared with basophils from parasitized heterozygotes. The possession of small numbers of granules which vary in their reaction to stains of the Romanowski type is a normal feature of rat basophils in blood smears. Consequently rat basophils differ in these respects from those of other species.