Substrains of 129 mice are resistant to Yersinia pestis KIM5: implications for interleukin-10-deficient mice.

Interleukin-10 (IL-10)-deficient mice are resistant to several pathogens, including Yersinia pestis. Surprisingly, we observed that heterozygous IL-10(+/-) mice also survive high-dose intravenous infection with Y. pestis KIM5 (Pgm(-)).

The resistance of BALB/cJ mice to Yersinia pestis maps to the major histocompatibility complex of chromosome 17.

Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, has been well studied at the molecular and genetic levels, but little is known about the role that host genes play in combating this highly lethal pathogen. We challenged several inbred strains of mice with Y. pestis and found that BALB/cJ mice are highly resistant compared to susceptible strains such as C57BL/6J.