Difference in immune responses to Candida albicans in two inbred strains of male rats

Mirjana V Papic; Biljana Ljujic; Suzana Zivanovic; Milos Papic; Miona Vuletic; Ivana Petrovic; Marina Gazdic Jankovic; Katarina Virijevic; Milica Popovic; Marina Miletic Kovacevic

doi:10.1016/j.archoralbio.2023.105808

Difference in immune responses to Candida albicans in two inbred strains of male rats

Arch Oral Biol. 2023 Dec:156:105808. doi: 10.1016/j.archoralbio.2023.105808. Epub 2023 Sep 20.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dentistry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia.
² Department of Genetics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia; Center for Harm Reduction of Biological and Chemical Hazards, Faculty of Medical Sciences University of Kragujevac, Serbia. Electronic address: bljujic74@gmail.com.
³ Department of Clinical Microbiology, University of Kragujevac Clinical Centre, Kragujevac, Serbia.
⁴ Department of Genetics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia; Center for Harm Reduction of Biological and Chemical Hazards, Faculty of Medical Sciences University of Kragujevac, Serbia.
⁵ Department of Natural Sciences, Institute for Information Technologies Kragujevac, University of Kragujevac, Serbia.
⁶ Center for Harm Reduction of Biological and Chemical Hazards, Faculty of Medical Sciences University of Kragujevac, Serbia; Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia.

PMID: 37778290
DOI: 10.1016/j.archoralbio.2023.105808

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the influence of strain differences in immune response on the pathogenesis of oral candidiasis in Dark Agouti (DA) and Albino Oxford (AO) inbred strains of rats.

Design: Seventy male 8-weeks old DA and AO rats were inoculated with Candida albicans to induce three different experimental models of oral candidiasis, one immunocompetent and two immunocompromised models. The animals were sacrificed after 16 days from the beginning of the experiment followed by collecting the samples of the tongue dorsum and blood for histopathological (PAS and H&E staining), immunohistochemical, qRT-PCR, and oxidative stress analyses.

Results: Histopathological and immunohistochemical analyses revealed lower levels of epithelial colonization, epithelial damage, and inflammatory infiltration in DA compared to AO strain of rats. DA rats had fewer CD45, CD68, and CD3 positive cells but more HIS 48 positive cells than AO rats. The expressions of IL-1β, TNFα, IFN-γ, IL-10 and TGF-β1 were consistently higher in DA strain across all experimental models. However, the expressions of IL-4 and IL-17 differed inconsistently between DA and AO strain in various experimental models. Strain differences were observed in levels of prooxidative hydrogen peroxide and lipid peroxidation, with higher levels presented in AO rats compared to DA rats, while antioxidative parameters presented little yet inconsistent difference between strains.

Conclusion: DA strain of rats consistently presented lower susceptibility to oral infection with C. albicans compared to AO strain with robust Th1/Th17 immune response indicating the importance of the genetic background on the development of oral candidiasis.

Keywords: Albino Oxford rats; Dark Agouti rats; Immune response; Oral candidiasis; Strain differences.

MeSH terms

Animals
Candida albicans*
Candidiasis, Oral*
Immunity
Male
Rats