Objective: To study the protective immunity and antibody (IgG, IgG1 and IgG2a) response against adult and larva infection of T. spiralis Korean isolate in rats.
Methods: Forty-six rats were randomly divided into 7 groups. Group A (A1, A2, 10 rats) was used for the determination of protective efficacy from adult stage infection, group B (B1, B2, 14 rats) was for the protective efficacy from muscle larva stage infection, group C (C1, C2, 17 rats) was for challenge control, and group D (5 rats) served as normal control. Rats in groups A, B and C were infected with 1,000 T.spiralis muscle larvae, and the infected rats were treated with flubendazole (20 mg/kg, 10 d) at day 7 (A1, A2) and at day 30 (B1, B2). Rats in groups A and B were re-infected with 500 T. spiralis muscle larvae at day 10 after treatment. Rats in groups A1 and B1 were killed at day 7 and day 30 to inspect the reduction of adult worms in the intestines. Rats in groups A2 and B2 were killed at day 30 to detect the reduction of muscle larvae in diaphragms. Rats in groups C and D were killed at the same time, and all rats were bled at the same time. Specific anti-Trichinella IgG, IgG1 and IgG2a were detected by ELISA.
Results: Adult stage infection induced protective efficacy by 100% against adult stage and by 99.96% against larva stage. Larval stage infection induced protective efficacy by 99.92% against adult stage and 99.89% against muscle larvae. Anti-muscle stage larval ES Ag (IgG 3.0, IgG1 2.2, IgG2a 0.8) and anti-adult crude Ag antibodies (IgG 1.9, IgG1 0.8, IgG2a 0.3) significantly increased in the muscle larval stage infection compared to normal control (IgG 0.5, IgG1 0.1, IgG2a 0.1) and adult stage infection (IgG 0.5, IgG1 0.09, IgG2a 0.09) (P < 0.01). Higher specific IgG1 antibody (IgG1 2.2) in larva stage infection was shown than specific IgG2a antibody response (IgG2a 0.8)(P < 0.01).
Conclusion: Protective immunity against both adult and larva worms has been induced from adult and muscle larva stage infections of T. spiralis.