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| Format: | Artículo científico |
| Language: | en |
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Academia Brasileira de Ciências
2001
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| Online Access: | https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=32773408 |
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Table of Contents:
- The pathogenesis of Chagas disease: when autoimmune and parasite-specific immune responses meet Milena B. P. Soares Lain Pontes-de-Carvalho Ricardo Ribeiro-dos-Santos Multidisciplinaria (Ciencias Naturales y Exactas) delayed myocarditis autoimmunity Chagas´ disease Trypanosoma cruzi Chagas´ disease is a major health problem in Latin America, where it constitutes one of the leading causesof heart failure. About one fourth of Trypanosoma cruzi-infected individuals develop chronic chagasiccardiomyopathy (CChC), the most severe form of the disease. CChC is histologically characterized by thepresence of multifocal inflammatory infiltrates in the heart, composed mainly by mononuclear cells, usuallyadhered to myocytes and leading to myocytolysis, and frequently by interstitial fibrosis. The pathogenesisof CChC is still unclear, despite intense investigations both in human beings and in animal models of thedisease. Although tissue parasitism is rare in the chronic phase of infection, an immune response targetedto persistent parasites or parasite antigens is suggested, by some authors, as the pathogenic mechanismof CChC. Other researchers affirm that the lack of correlation between tissue parasitism and intensity ofinflammation suggests, along with the presence of autoreactive immune responses, that CChC results fromthe action of an autoimmune response. Herein we review reports from the literature and our own data, whichtogether indicate, on one hand, the participation of parasite-specific immune responses and, on the otherhand, clearly demonstrate the participation of heart-specific immune responses in the pathogenesis of CChC.Moreover, multiple factors may determine whether an individual in the indeterminate form of the diseasewill develop CChC. The mechanisms by which T. cruzi breaks immunological tolerance to heart antigens arealso discussed. 2001 artículo científico 0001-3765 https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=32773408 en http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=327 Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências application/pdf Academia Brasileira de Ciências Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (Brasil) Num.4 Vol.73