Morphological alterations in the central nervous system induced in mice by Trypanosoma cruzi

Children up to four years old are most susceptible to infection by Trypanosoma cruzi, which can compromise the central nervous system. The objective of this study was to quantify body weight, evaluate the histological alterations in the nervous system of 10-day-old mice inoculated with 4.000 or 20.000 trypomastigotes of T. cruzi , and also study the parasitemia of the inoculated animals at 25 days of age, with and without immunosuppression. The animals were sacrificed and fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde. Encephalic and medullar fragments were processed using the histological technique and stained with hematoxilin-eosin. Parasitemia was major in inoculated and immunosuppressed animals. Inoculated animals presented lower body weight than controls. In the encephalon, amastigote nests, glial nodes and perivascular infiltrates were found. In the medulla, no histological alterations were. Young animals were more susceptible to T. cruzi infection, with more severe encephalic implications. The studied isolate presented behavior compatible with type III strains.