Immunohistological study of the anatomic relationship of toxoplasma antigens to the inflammatory response in the brains of mice chronically infected with Toxoplasma gondii.

The relationship of toxoplasma antigen(s) to the origin and long-term persistence of the mononuclear cell inflammatory infiltrate that is present in the brains of mice chronically infected with Toxoplasma gondii was studied by using the peroxidase-antiperoxidase immunohistochemical staining technique. C3H/Km mice were infected with the avirulent C37 strain of T. gondii and sequentially sacrificed over the ensuing 107 days. Comparable sections of each brain were prepared for routine light microscopy. Antisera to toxoplasma made in rabbits were used for immunohistological staining, and adjacent slides were also stained with conventional histological stains. The peroxidase-antiperoxidase stain demonstrated toxoplasma tissue cysts, tachyzoites, and intra- and extracellular antigen-antibody reaction products. Early infection was characterized by small tight clusters of free tachyzoites gaining access to brain substance in the absence of an inflammatory response. Once there was disruption of neural parenchyma, a mononuclear cellular infiltrate rapidly ensued. After the first days of infection, mononuclear cells were always present in all infected brains and were anatomically associated with some component of toxoplasma antigen(s). The histological picture of late infection suggested that recurrent episodes of hematogenous dissemination of tachyzoites occurred in infected mice and that such episodes were at least partially responsible for persistence of an antigenic stimulus.