Further studies on variable resistance of 129/J and C57BL/6 mice to infection with Schistosoma japonicum and Schistosoma mansoni.

Two mouse strains maintained in this laboratory (WEHI) are variably resistant to infection with Schistosoma japonicum and S. mansoni in that worms cannot be found in the liver and portal system in a high proportion (WEHI 129/J mice) or low proportion (C57BL/6 mice) some weeks after exposure to cercariae. Resistance can be as high as 100% in WEHI 129/J mice and is usually around 20% in C57BL/6 mice. The proportion of resistant mice closely parallels the proportion of mice that demonstrate a shunting of microbeads, injected into a mesenteric vein, from liver to lungs. This applies to F1 x WEHI 129/J backcross mice in which the data suggest oligogenic genetic effects although no evidence for a participation of MHC-linked genes in the phenomenon has emerged. 129/J mice derived from the Jackson Laboratory do not show a shunting of beads from the portal system to the lungs but their progeny bred at WEHI do. Germ-free WEHI 129/J mice resemble conventionally-maintained, SPF-derived WEHI 129/J mice in their variable resistance to schistosome infection. No satisfactory explantation for hepato-portal system peculiarities in WEHI 129/J and C57BL/6 mice can be advanced as yet and a possibility raised in this paper is a contribution from nutritional factors such as hypervitaminosis A superimposed on a genetic predisposition in these two related mouse strains.