Salkowski C A, Balish E
Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison.
Can J Microbiol. 1991 Nov;37(11):834-9. doi: 10.1139/m91-144.
The susceptibility of congenitally immunodeficient mice to a nonencapsulated strain of Cryptococcus neoformans (strain M7) was evaluated. Gnotobiotic mice with defined congenital defects in innate immunity (beige) or cell-mediated immunity (athymic) or with combined defects in innate and cellular immunity (beige athymic) were i.v. challenged with C. neoformans M7. The nonencapsulated strain of C. neoformans produced a persistent low-grade infection in the brains of all immunodeficient and immunocompetent mice used in this study. Immunocompetent mice (nu/+;bg/+) and immunodeficient bg/bg mice readily cleared nonencapsulated cryptococci from their kidneys, liver, lungs, and spleen. In contrast to nu/+ mice, nu/nu mice had a reduced capacity to clear nonencapsulated cryptococci from their kidneys and liver after i.v. challenge. Both bg/bg-nu/nu and bg/bg-nu/+ mice developed a low-grade infection in their kidneys, liver, lungs, and spleen, which was maintained throughout the 21-day study. Persistent infections were not due to reversion to an encapsulated state. These data indicate that a capsule may not always be necessary for C. neoformans to survive, in vivo, in tissues of immunodeficient and immunocompetent mice.
评估了先天性免疫缺陷小鼠对新型隐球菌非荚膜菌株（菌株M7）的易感性。对具有先天性固有免疫缺陷（米色）或细胞介导免疫缺陷（无胸腺）或固有免疫和细胞免疫联合缺陷（米色无胸腺）的无菌小鼠静脉注射新型隐球菌M7进行攻击。新型隐球菌的非荚膜菌株在本研究中使用的所有免疫缺陷和免疫健全小鼠的大脑中产生了持续性的轻度感染。免疫健全小鼠（nu/+;bg/+）和免疫缺陷的bg/bg小鼠能够轻易地从其肾脏、肝脏、肺和脾脏中清除非荚膜隐球菌。与nu/+小鼠相比，nu/nu小鼠静脉注射攻击后从其肾脏和肝脏中清除非荚膜隐球菌的能力降低。bg/bg-nu/nu和bg/bg-nu/+小鼠在其肾脏、肝脏、肺和脾脏中均出现了轻度感染，且在整个21天的研究过程中持续存在。持续性感染并非由于菌株回复为荚膜状态所致。这些数据表明，对于新型隐球菌在免疫缺陷和免疫健全小鼠组织中的体内存活而言，荚膜可能并非总是必需的。
