Evaluation of mycobacterial virulence using rabbit skin liquefaction model

• DOI: 10.4161/viru.1.3.11748
• Publication Date: 2010-10-27T14:03:15Z
• Authors: Guoping Zhang; Bingdong Zhu; Wanliang Shi; Mingzhu Wang; Zejiao Da; Ying Zhang
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Virulence; Colony Count, Microbial; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Mycobacterium bovis; Mycobacterium; 3. Good health; Disease Models, Animal; 03 medical and health sciences; Animals; Humans; Tuberculosis; Rabbits; Skin

Liquefaction is an important pathological process that can subsequently lead to cavitation where large numbers of bacilli be coughed up which in turn causes spread tuberculosis humans. Current animal models study the liquefaction and evaluate virulence mycobacteria are tedious. In this study, we evaluated a rabbit skin model as rapid for assessment using M. bovis BCG, avirulent strain H37Ra, smegmatis, H37Ra strains complemented with selected genes from virulent H37Rv. We found prime and/or boosting immunization, all these live bacteria at enough high number could induce liquefaction, induced stronger more severe lesions shorter time compared injection. The caused by dose BCG (5×106) were most followed smegmatis being least pathogenic. It interest note none above heat-killed liquefaction. When was certain wild type H37Rv, some produced than H37Ra. These results suggest visual, convenient, useful different mechanisms