Adiaspore development and morphological characteristics in a mouse adiaspiromycosis model

Lesions of adiaspiromycosis, a respiratory disease affecting wild animals, have been found mainly in dead mammals and free-living mammals captured for surveillance. No report has described an investigation of adiaspore formation progress in the lung. After establishing an experimental mouse model of intratracheal adiaspiromycosis infection with the causative agent Emmonsia crescens, we observed adiaspore development. The spores grew and reached a plateau of growth at 70 days post-infection. The median adiaspore diameter showed a plateau of around 40 μm. The characteristic three-layer cell-wall structure of adiaspores was observed in the lung at 70 days post-infection. We examined infection with a few spores, which revealed that adiaspores in the mouse lung progressed from intratracheal infection of at least 400 spores. Moreover, we developed adiaspores in vitro by culture in fetal bovine serum. Although most spores broke, some large spores were intact. They reached about 50 μm diameter. Thick cell walls and dense granules were found as common points between in vitro adiaspores and in vivo adiaspores. These models are expected to be useful for additional investigations of E. crescens adiaspores and adiaspiromycosis.