Alterações no tecido esplênico e perfil da resposta imunológica de camundongos esquistossomóticos submetidos à ingestão de etanol

Abstract

In schistosomiasis mansoni infection, the spleen is one of the affected organs, causing the increase of its volume (splenomegaly). Ingestion of ethanol through alcoholic beverages can cause spleen atrophy and interfere with immune activity. To gain insight of this association on the spleen and in the immunological response profile, male mice were used as the experimental model. One group of these animals (n = 5) were neither infected nor received ethanol (Group C), another group (n = 5) was not infected, but received orally (gavage) 200 μL / day of ethanol 18% for 28 consecutive days (CE Group). The remaining animals were infected with 80 cercariae (BH strain) of S. mansoni, with one group (n = 7) being maintained the infection only (Group I), and in the other group (n = 7) was administered ethanol (28 consecutive days) beginning on the fifth week of infection, going to the end of the experiment (IE group). At the ninth week of infection, at the end of the gavage, all animals were euthanized and the content of the peritoneal lavage (in RPMI medium) was collected to obtain cytokines produced by peritoneal cells. The spleen was removed, cleaved longitudinally into two parts. One of these parts was fixed and submitted to routine histological processing and histological sections stained in H&E and Gomori reticulin. The other fragment was macerated (in laminar flow) and the cell suspension, after adjustment of cell concentration (2x106), was plated to obtain cytokines produced by lymphocytes. Biochemical and blood analyzes (leukogram) were also performed. Spleen alterations were evaluated through histopathological and stereological analysis (test system D36), white pulp morphometry and megakaryocyte quantification. Cytokines produced by peritoneal cells and lymphocytes were measured by flow cytometry (Citometric Bead Array). The results of the biochemical analysis showed a significant increase of glucose (+ 71%; p=0.0079), cholesterol (+ 22%; p= 0.0079), HDL (+ 27%; p= 0.0079) and albumin (+ 30%; p= 0.0079) in the IE group in relation to group I. The analyzes in the splenic tissue of the IE group showed an increase in the amount of trabeculae and megakaryocytes, decrease in reticular fibers, as well as organizational changes in white pulp and red pulp. The IL-6 cytokine produced by the peritoneal cells presented a significant increase (+32200; p = 0.0018) in the IE group when compared to the C group. Changes in this study demonstrate that ethanol ingestion interferes in some experimental parameters of schistosome infection, such as changes in spleen tissue and in the pattern of cytokine production.