Camargos E R, Machado C R
Department of Morphology, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1988 Nov;39(5):456-62. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.1988.39.456.
Histological methods were used for studying the left superior cervical ganglia of control and T. cruzi infected female rats killed 13, 20, and 34 days after inoculation. Concomitantly, the sympathetic innervation of the heart auricular appendages and of the submandibular gland was studied by a glyoxylic acid-induced fluorescence method for catecholamines. At day 34 of infection, the superior cervical ganglia of an additional group of control and infected animals were studied morphometrically through the determination of ganglion volume, total number, and nuclear diameter of the principal neurons. No amastigote pseudocyst could be detected inside the ganglia at any time during infection. Inflammatory reactions were very discrete or absent at day 13 of infection, but were clearly present at day 20 as periganglionitis (in all infected animals) or ganglionitis (in 62.5% of the infected animals). These reactions again became very discrete at day 34 of infection. None of the morphometric parameters analyzed were altered by Chagas' disease. Histochemical studies on the sympathetic innervation of the heart and submandibular gland showed disappearance or rarefaction of fluorescent nerve fibers, starting around the 13th day of infection. The involvement of sympathetic nerve terminals in Chagas' disease is a local phenomenon rather than a consequence of parasitism or destruction.
采用组织学方法研究接种后13天、20天和34天处死的对照雌性大鼠和感染克氏锥虫的雌性大鼠的左颈上神经节。同时，通过乙醛酸诱导的儿茶酚胺荧光法研究心脏心耳和下颌下腺的交感神经支配。在感染第34天，通过测定神经节体积、神经元总数和主要神经元的核直径，对另一组对照动物和感染动物的颈上神经节进行形态计量学研究。在感染期间的任何时候，神经节内均未检测到无鞭毛体假囊肿。感染第13天时炎症反应非常轻微或不存在，但在第20天时明显出现，表现为神经节周炎（所有感染动物）或神经节炎（62.5%的感染动物）。在感染第34天时，这些反应再次变得非常轻微。分析的形态计量学参数均未因恰加斯病而改变。对心脏和下颌下腺交感神经支配的组织化学研究表明，从感染第13天左右开始，荧光神经纤维消失或稀疏。恰加斯病中交感神经末梢的受累是一种局部现象，而非寄生或破坏的结果。
