Hematopoietic changes and altered reactivity to IL-17 in Syphacia obvelata-infected mice

Pinworm parasites commonly infect laboratory mice with high prevalence even in well-managed animal colonies. Although often considered as irrelevant, these parasites if undetected may significantly interfere with the experimental settings and alter the interpretation of final results. There are a few reports documenting the effects of pinworms on research and the effects of pinworms on the host hematopoiesis have not yet been investigated. In this study we examined the changes within various hematopoietic cell lineages in the bone marrow, spleen, peripheral blood and peritoneal space during naturally acquired Syphacia obvelata infection in inbred CBA mice. The data obtained showed significant hematopoietic alterations, characterized by increased myelopoiesis and erythropoiesis in S. obvelata-infected animals. In order to additionally evaluate if this pinworm infection modifies hematopoietic cells' reactivity, we examined the effect of murine interleukin-17, T cell-derived cytokine implicated in the regulation of hematopoiesis and inflammation, on the growth of bone marrow progenitor cells and demonstrated that bone marrow myeloid and erythroid progenitors from S. obvelata-infected mice displayed altered sensitivity to IL-17 when compared to non-infected controls. Taken together the alterations presented pointed out that this rodent pinworm is an important environmental agent that might significantly modify the hosts' hematopoietic response, and therefore interfere with the experimental settings and alter the interpretation of the final results. However, the results obtained also contributed new data concerning the activity of IL-17 on bone marrow hematopoietic cells, supporting our previous reports that depending on physiological/pathological status of the organism IL-17 exerts differential effects on the growth of progenitor cells.