Kinetic analysis of antigen-specific immune responses in resistant and susceptible mice during infection with Trypanosoma cruzi.

The Tulahuén strain of Trypanosoma cruzi has been shown previously to cause higher parasitemias and greater mortality in BALB/c mice compared with C57BL6/J mice. The goal of our study was to determine whether different cytokine responses to parasite Ag during T. cruzi infection correlate with the susceptible and resistant phenotypes identified in these mice. At several time points after initial infection with insect-derived metacyclic trypomastigotes, lymph node and spleen cell suspensions were prepared from animals of each mouse strain. These lymphocyte suspensions were stimulated with Ag prepared from cultured parasites and the production of IFN-gamma, IL-4, IL-2, and IL-5 was measured. Lymphocytes from C57BL6/J mice produced 10-fold more IFN-gamma than BALB/c lymphocytes. However, this enhanced response occurred only for a limited time preceding peak parasitemias. Ag-induced secretion of IL-4 from BALB/c lymphocytes was detectable by 2 wk of infection and increased during the 2nd and 3rd mo of infection. Most C57BL6/J culture supernatants did not contain measurable levels of IL-4. Lymphocytes from both murine strains produced levels of IL-2 and IL-5 indistinguishable from uninfected controls. These results indicate that increased numbers or potency of lymphocytes that produce Ag-specific IFN-gamma responses are present in resistant mice during T. cruzi infection. This phenomenon may be responsible for the lower parasitemias seen in C57BL6/J mice. However, even these relatively resistant mice become chronically infected with T. cruzi, and spleen cells from infected mice can suppress IFN-gamma induced by heterologous Ag. Our data suggest that IL-4 production is a marker for the T. cruzi susceptible phenotype. Differential production of IL-2 or IL-5 was not found, suggesting that these cytokines are not important factors in T. cruzi resistance or susceptibility.