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. 2014 Apr;90(4):627-33.
doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.13-0448. Epub 2014 Feb 24.

Correlation between presence of Trypanosoma cruzi DNA in heart tissue of baboons and cynomolgus monkeys, and lymphocytic myocarditis

James N Mubiru  1 , Alice Yang, Edward J Dick Jr, Michael Owston, R Mark Sharp, Jane F VandeBerg, Robert E Shade, John L VandeBerg
Affiliations

Correlation between presence of Trypanosoma cruzi DNA in heart tissue of baboons and cynomolgus monkeys, and lymphocytic myocarditis

James N Mubiru et al. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2014 Apr.

Abstract

Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas' disease, preferentially infects cardiac and digestive tissues. Baboons living in Texas (Papio hamadryas) and cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) have been reported to be infected naturally with T. cruzi. In this study, we retrospectively reviewed cases of animals that were diagnosed with lymphocytic myocarditis and used a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method (S36/S35 primer set) to amplify T. cruzi DNA from archived frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) cardiac tissues. We show that the PCR method is applicable in archived frozen and FFPE tissues and the sensitivity is in the femtogram range. A positive correlation between PCR positivity and lymphocytic myocarditis in both baboons and cynomolgus monkeys is shown. We also show epicarditis as a common finding in animals infected with T. cruzi.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of Trypanosoma cruzi from frozen baboon left ventricle using the S35/S36 primer pair. Lane 1 = size marker, lanes 2–8 = positive results, lanes 9–10 = negative results, lane 11 = T. cruzi positive control (Tulahuen strain), lane 12 = water control.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of Trypanosoma cruzi from cynomolgus monkey formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded left ventricle using the S35/S36 primer set. Lane 1 = size marker, lanes 2–7 = positive results, lane 8 = T. cruzi positive control (Tulahuen strain), lane 9 = water control.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of serially diluted Trypanosoma cruzi (Tulahuen strain) DNA using the S35/S36 primer set. MK = size marker; ng = nanograms.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of host DNA from baboon ventricles (panel A) and cynomolgus monkey ventricles (panel B) using the L2513/H2714 (rRNA) primer set. MK = size marker.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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