Experimental chagas' disease in rhesus monkeys. I. Clinical parasitological, hematological and anatomo-pathological studies in the acute and indeterminate phase of the disease

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Abstract
Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were infected subcutaneously with 1.0 .times. 104 to 1.5 .times. 104 metacyclic trypomastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi (Colombian strain). Parasitological and immunological parameters were evaluated in these animals for periods of 1 month to over 3 years. A chagoma was observed between the 3rd and the 13th day after infection (a. i.) and patent parasitaemia between the 13th and 59th day a. i.. Thereafter, parasites were demonstrated only by haemoculture and/or xenodiagnosis. Circulating specific IgM and IgG antibodies were observed as early as in the 2nd week a. i. IgG levels persisted until the end of the experiment, but IgM antibodies were detectable nine months a. i. Haematological alterations comprised leucocytosis and lymphocytosis. Electrocardiographic alterations were minor and transient, similar to those observed in non-lethal human acute Chagas'' myocarditis. Myocarditis and myositis, characterized by mulitple foci of lympho-histocyte inflammatory infiltrate, were present in monkeys sacrificed on the 41th, 70th and 76th day but not in the animal sacrificed 3 years months and 3 months a. i.. The results suggest that Chagas'' disease in rhesus monkeys reproduces the acute and indeterminate phases of human Chagas'' disease.