Relationship of Serum Beta-Glucuronidase and Lysozyme to Pathogenesis of Tularemia in Immune and Nonimmune Rats.

摘要

A temporal study is reported of the febrile responses, tissue bacterial contents, and serum concentration of the lysosomal enzymes, beta-glucuronidase and lysozyme, in nonimmune rats inoculated with virulent or attenuated strains of Francisella tularensis, and in immune rats challenged with either a high or low dose of virulent organisms. The level of serum beta-glucuronidase appears to be an indicator of hepatocyte damage, whereas serum lysozyme correlates with the appearance, frequency, and severity of pyogranulomatous lesions. Survival of nonimmune rats after a challenge with either virulent or attenuated organisms appears to depend on a balance between dose of bacterial inoculum, celerity of irreversible pathologic events, and the ability of the reticuloendothelial and immune systems to collaboratively mount a response to limit or prevent dissemination of the infection. In immune rats, infection of parenchymal hepatic cells does not occur after a low dose (10 to the 4th power) virulent challenge. Infection of parenchymal hepatic cells, however, does occur in immunized rats when the challenge dose is sufficiently large (10 to the 8th power) so as to overcome the capacity of the reticuloendothelial to clear opsonized organisms. (Author)