It is well known that
sex hormones play an important role during
Taenia solium infection; however, to our knowledge no studies exist concerning the immune response following complete or lobe-specific removal of the pituitary gland during T. solium
infection. Thus, the aim of this work was to analyze in hamsters, the effects of lack of
pituitary hormones on the duodenal immune response, and their impact on T. solium establishment and development. Thus, in order to achieve this goal, we perform anterior pituitary lobectomy (AL, n = 9), neurointermediate pituitary lobectomy (NIL, n = 9) and total
hypophysectomy (HYPOX, n = 8), and related to the gut establishment and growth of T. solium,
hematoxylin-
eosin staining of duodenal tissue and immunofluorescence of duodenal
cytokine expression and compared these results to the control intact (n = 8) and control infected group (n = 8). Our results indicate that 15 days post-
infection, HYPOX reduces the number and size of intestinally recovered T. solium adults. Using semiquantitative immunofluorescent
laser confocal microscopy, we observed that the mean intensity of duodenal IFN-γ and
IL-12 Th1
cytokines was mildly expressed in the infected controls, in contrast with the high level of expression of these
cytokines in the NIL infected hamsters. Likewise, the duodenum of HYPOX animals showed an increase in the expression of Th2
cytokines IL-5 and
IL-6, when compared to control hamsters. Histological analysis of duodenal mucosa from HYPOX hamsters revealed an exacerbated inflammatory infiltrate located along the lamina propria and related to the presence of the parasite. We conclude that lobe-specific
pituitary hormones affect differentially the T. solium development and the gut immune response.