Experimental Infection of Mice with Veronaea botryosa as a Model for Human Phaeohyphomycosis.

In this study, we inoculatedimmunocompetent heterozygotic (nu/+) and immunodeficient homozygotic (nu/nu) Hsd:Athymic Nude-Fox1nu mice subcutaneously or through orogastric gavage with 1 of 3 representative V. botryosa strains that had been recovered from white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), and human hosts and typed by using rep-PCR analysis. Daily mortality and morbidity were recorded, and dissemination of the fungus was investigated through culture ofsplenic samples and histologic analysis of the injection site, regional lymph nodes, salivary gland, spleen, liver, mesentericlymph node, and gastrointestinal tract. No differences in survival, fungal burden, or dissemination were observed between fungal strains, routes of inoculation, or host immune status. Fungal infection was observed after subcutaneous inoculation only, was localized to the inoculation site, and was identified in both nu/nu and nu/+ mice. Fungal strain variability was not associated with virulence in a murine model of infection, and this novel mouse model of V. botryosa phaeohyphomycosis recapitulates the human clinical condition. PMID: 31387667 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Comparative Medicine - Category: Zoology Authors: Tags: Comp Med Source Type: research