Nutrition and acute schistosomiasis

Abstract

In northeast Brazil, nutritional deficiency diseases and schistosomiasis mansoni overlap. An experimental model, which reproduces the marasmatic clinical form of protein-energy malnutrition, was developed in this laboratory to study these interactions. Albino Swiss mice were fed with a food association ingested usually by human populations in northeast Brazil. This diet (Regional Basic Diet - RBD) has negative effects on the growth, food intake and protein utilization in infected mice (acute phase of murine schistosomiasis). Nitrogen balance studies have also shown that infection with Schistosoma mansoni has apparently no effect on protein intestinal absorption in well nourished mice. However, the lowest absorption ratios have been detected among RBD--fed infected animals, suggesting that superimposed schistosome infection aggravated the nutritional status of the undernourished host. The serum proteins electrophoretic pattern, as far as albumins are concerned, is quite similar for non-infected undernourished and infected well-fed animals. So, the significance of albumins as a biochemical indicator of the nutritional status of human populations residing in endemic foci of Manson's schistosomiasis, is discussable.

Alanyl-glutamine promotes intestinal epithelial cell homeostasis in vitro and in a murine model of weanling undernutrition

“…Initially formulated to reflect the marginal diets of impoverished populations in Northeast Brazil with protein-energy malnutrition (65), over the past two decades, the RBD has been well-studied in rat or mouse models of schistosomiasis (15,16,26,51), hypertension (13), and nutritional neuropathies (1, 3, 17, 31, 57). The present study is the first of which we know to identify and characterize the enteropathy induced by the RBD.…”

Parasitological characteristics of Schistosoma mansoni infection in swiss mice with underlying malnutrition

“…Most authors have studied an interrelationship between schistosomiasis mansoni and protein malnutrition over the post-weaning period (Akpom 1982, Magalhães et al 1986, Coutinho et al 1992. In our study model, mice received free access to a protein-restricted diet throughout the experiment.…”

Low transformation growth factor-β1 production and collagen synthesis correlate with the lack of hepatic periportal fibrosis development in undernourished mice infected with Schistosoma mansoni

“…As this experimental model of mouse undernutrition has been extensively studied in previous investigations (Coutinho 1980, Teodósio et al 1990, Coutinho et al 1992, 1997, 2003), it was considered unnecessary to evaluate other parameters.…”