Influence of source and quantity of protein on the development of immunity and resistance to African trypanosomiasis

Although it is well documented that severe protein deprivation inhibits the development of the immune response and exacerbates certain infections, little has been done to study the effects of native diets on endemic diseases or immunity. Therefore, protein-restricted diets were formulated for mice to mimic the sources and amounts measured in human diets of the Batouri region of Cameroon, endemic for African trypanosomiasis. Weanling C57BL/6 female mice were fed a diet that contained 73% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of protein. The sources of protein were all plant (cornmeal), all animal (casein), or a ratio that reflected the native diet (2.2 parts plant to 1 part animal protein). Diets were isocaloric on a weight basis, equal in lipids, and adequate in vitamins and minerals. Control mice were fed laboratory chow or two times the RDA of animal protein (casein). Mice fed only cornmeal or the native diets consumed as much food but did not gain as much weight as mice fed only animal protein, indicating the poorer quality of protein in their diets. Upon infection with Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, however, significantly higher numbers of these mice controlled the first peak of parasitemia and survived the infection as compared with mice fed the other three diets. Since all mice developed patent infections and the parasite growth rate was unaffected by diet, innate immune factors were ruled out as the cause for the higher level of resistance to the parasite. To determine whether diet affected the development of the immune system, weanling mice were maintained on diets for 30 days before immunization with sheep erythrocytes or trinitrophenylated Ficoll. Mice fed only plant protein or native diets elicited higher direct plaque-forming-cell responses to both the T-cell-dependent and T-cell-independent antigens. Since variant-specific immunity which controls levels of African trypanosomes in the blood is a T-cell-independent humoral immunoglobulin M response, this suggests that cornmeal, a protein of poor quality, was adequate for the development of humoral immunity and resistance to African trypanosomiasis while casein, an animal protein of high quality, was not. This provides more evidence that diet plays an important role in infection and immunity.