State Key Laboratory of Pathogens and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China.
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2011 Sep;85(3):504-9. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.2011.10-0660.
Far-eastern spotted fever is an emerging disease caused by Rickettsia heilongjiangensis, a tick-borne obligate intracellular bacterium. In this study, R. heilongjiangensis was used to infect BALB/c mice by inoculation of retro-orbital venous plexus to imitate a blood infection caused by tick biting. We found that R. heilongjiangensis rapidly entered the circulation for systemic dissemination and the pathogen existed in liver, spleen, lungs, and brain of the mice at least 9 days post-infection (p.i.). Severe pathological lesions were observed in liver, lungs, and brain at Day 6 p.i. In addition, the elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines, including interferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor, and CC chemokine, were detected in the infected organs at Day 3 p.i. Our results reveal that R. heilongjiangensis may cause an infection in BALB/c mice and the pathological lesions in the infected mice are associated with host inflammatory response induced by R. heilongjiangensis.
远东斑疹热是由黑龙江立克次体引起的一种新发传染病,是一种蜱传专性细胞内细菌。在本研究中,通过眶后静脉丛接种感染 BALB/c 小鼠,模拟蜱叮咬引起的血液感染,用黑龙江立克次体感染 BALB/c 小鼠。我们发现黑龙江立克次体迅速进入血液循环进行全身播散,感染后至少 9 天病原体存在于小鼠的肝脏、脾脏、肺和脑中。感染后第 6 天,在肝脏、肺部和大脑中观察到严重的病理损伤。此外,在感染后第 3 天,在受感染的器官中检测到炎性细胞因子(包括干扰素-γ、肿瘤坏死因子和 CC 趋化因子)水平升高。我们的结果表明,黑龙江立克次体可能引起 BALB/c 小鼠感染,感染小鼠的病理损伤与黑龙江立克次体诱导的宿主炎症反应有关。