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Onchocerciasis: experimental models of ocular disease.
- Source :
-
Reviews of infectious diseases [Rev Infect Dis] 1985 Nov-Dec; Vol. 7 (6), pp. 820-5. - Publication Year :
- 1985
-
Abstract
- Onchocerciasis is a leading cause of blindness in equatorial Africa and in endemic regions in Central America. Understanding of the pathologic processes involved in onchocercal eye disease and of the role of immunopathologic mechanisms in its development has been substantially limited by the shortage of eyes for histologic study and by the lack of a naturally occurring animal model. The inoculation of microfilariae of Onchocerca species into the eyes of laboratory animals may reproduce selected aspects of onchocercal eye disease, such as punctate keratitis. Studies in these models support the hypothesis that immunopathologic mechanisms mediated by IgE antibody are involved in the development of ocular lesions. In some laboratory animal models, diethylcarbamazine citrate, a microfilaricidal drug that causes severe inflammatory reactions to microfilariae in humans, increases the severity of ocular lesions, and stimulates IgE antibody responses. Laboratory animal studies are potentially highly useful for understanding the immunopathogenesis of ocular onchocerciasis.
- Subjects :
- Animals
Antibody Formation
Antigens, Helminth immunology
Blindness immunology
Blindness pathology
Disease Models, Animal
Guinea Pigs
Immunization
Immunoglobulin E immunology
Keratitis immunology
Keratitis pathology
Macaca fascicularis
Onchocerca immunology
Onchocerciasis immunology
Onchocerciasis pathology
Rabbits
Keratitis parasitology
Onchocerciasis parasitology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0162-0886
- Volume :
- 7
- Issue :
- 6
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Reviews of infectious diseases
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 4070920
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/clinids/7.6.820