Moderate physical exercise reduces parasitaemia and protects colonic myenteric neurons in mice infected with Trypanosoma cruzi

Abstract

This study evaluated the influence of moderate physical exercise on the myenteric neurons in the colonic intestinal wall of mice that had been infected with Trypanosoma cruzi. Parasitology and immunological aspects of the mice were considered. Forty-day-old male Swiss mice were divided into four groups: Trained Infected (TI), Sedentary Infected (SI), Trained Control (TC), and Sedentary Control (SC). The TC and TI were subjected to a moderate physical exercise program on a treadmill for 8 weeks. Three days after finishing exercise, the TI and SI groups were inoculated with 1,300 blood trypomastigotes of the Y strain-T. cruzi. After 75 days of infection results were obtained. Kruskal-Wallis or Analyze of variance (Tukey post hoc test) at 5% level of significance was performed. Moderate physical exercise reduced both the parasite peak (day 8 of infection) and total parasitemia compared with the sedentary groups (P < 0.05). This activity also contributed to neuronal survival (P < 0.05). Exercise caused neuronal hypertrophy (P < 0.05) and an increase in the total thickness of the intestinal wall (P < 0.05). The TI group exhibited an increase in the number of intraepithelial lymphocytes (P > 0.05). In trained animals, the number of goblet cells was reduced compared with sedentary animals (P < 0.05). Physical exercise prevented the formation of inflammatory foci in the TI group (P < 0.05) and increased the synthesis of TNF-α (P < 0.05) and TGF-β (P > 0.05). The present results demonstrated the benefits of moderate physical exercise, and reaffirmed the possibility of that it may contribute to improving clinical treatment in Chagas' disease patients.

Myenteric neuroprotective role of aspirin in acute and chronic experimental infections with Trypanosoma cruzi

“…Surviving myenteric neurons in T. cruzi infection usually present hypertrophied cell bodies in humans and mice . We found this same result in T. cruzi infected mice treated with PBS.…”

“…trointestinal transit time of T. cruzi infected mice in physiological level.Unlike our findings, Da Silveira et al47 verified a higher denervation of nitrergic and VIPergic myenteric neurons in some chagasic patients.Further, this group[15][16][17] increased the number of evaluated patients and observed a selective survival of nitrergic and VIPergic myenteric neurons, suggesting that these types of neurons are more resistant to neuronal death provoked by Chagas disease.Surviving myenteric neurons in T. cruzi infection usually presenthypertrophied cell bodies in humans46,49 and mice 12,50. We found this same result in T. cruzi infected mice treated with PBS.…”

Highly diluted medication reduces tissue parasitism and inflammation in mice infected by Trypanosoma cruzi

“…16 In the spleen and liver, no significant differences in these parameters were observed between groups. In the digestive system, T. cruzi promotes the destruction of neurons in the enteric nervous system, 14 with the presence of inflammation throughout the entire intestinal circumference 14 that results in an impairment of peristalsis. 1 In the present study, animals treated with Ly exhibited significant reductions of the number of amastigote nests and amastigotes/nest in the intestine compared with the CI group, showing that this medication was important for the activation of regulatory mechanisms, the maintenance of intestinal integrity, and a better course of the infection in animals in this group.…”

The Differential Impact Of High-Intensity Swimming Exercise and Inflammatory Bowel Disease On IL-1b, TNF-a, and COX-2 Gene Expression in the Small Intestine and Colon in Mice

“…6 However, other studies have reported that exercise can restrict obesity and inflammation-related gene expression in the intestine. 7 In addition, it has been reported that exercise can prevent many diseases of the large intestine. 8 However, with the exception of the few studies mentioned above, there is generally a lack of studies examining the correlation between exercise and immune activity in the large intestine.…”