STUDY ON INTESTINAL EPITHELIAL CELL RESPONSE TO INTERLEUKIN-4 IN CRYPTOSPORIDIUM PARVUM EXPERIMENTALLY INFECTED MICE

Cryptosporidium a significant opportunistic pathogen and is one of the most prevalent intestinalpathogens that cause diarrhea globally. This study determined the IL-4 role on intestinal immuneresponses in mice infected with Cryptosporidium parvum. A total of 56 pathogen-free male SwissAlbino mice of CD1 strain were immunosuppressed, infected, and grouped into three groups: normalcontrol, infected control, and infected/anti-IL-4 mAb treated groups. Fecal and duodenal aspirateswere examined for oocysts shedding, histopathological evaluations, sera and immuno- histochemicalexpression to detect IL-4. The results showed a 17.9% died among groups. Infectedgroups showed significantly higher IL-4 levels than normal controls, while anti-IL-4 treated onesraised serum cytokines with blocked biological activity. The increased IL-4 secretion in infectedmice showed that mice tried to overcome the infection by deceased oocysts shedding, histopathological,and expressions changes. Thus, IL-4 played protective role in early infection after neutralizationwith anti-IL-4mAb. The blocking IL-4 function in neonatal Swiss albino mice increasedreproduction of C. parvum in early acute stage and increased the chronic stage.