Increased Resistance to Taenia crassiceps Murine Cysticercosis in Qa-2 Transgenic Mice

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Abstract
We previously reported important differences in resistance to Taenia crassiceps murine cysticercosis between BALB/c substrains. It was suggested that resistance might correlate with expression of the nonclassic class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) Qa-2 antigen; BALB/cAnN is Qa-2 negative and highly susceptible to T. crassiceps, whereas BALB/cJ expresses Qa-2 and is highly resistant. In this study, we investigated the role of Qa-2 in mediating resistance to cysticercosis by linkage analysis and infection of Qa-2 transgenic mice. In BALB/cAnN × (C57BL/6J × BALB/cAnN)F1 and BALB/cAnN × (BALB/cJ × BALB/cAnN)F1 backcrosses, the expression of Qa-2 antigen correlated with resistance to cysticercosis. Significantly fewer parasites were recovered from infected Qa-2 transgenic male and female mice than from nontransgenic mice of similar genetic background. These results clearly demonstrate that the Qa-2 MHC antigen is involved in resistance to T. crassiceps cysticercosis.