Saturated fatty acids differently affect mitochondrial function and the intestinal epithelial barrier depending on their chain length in the model of IPEC-J2 enterocytes.

Maintenance of the intestinal barrier mainly relies on the mitochondrial function of intestinal epithelial cells that provide ATP through oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). Dietary fatty acid overload might induce mitochondrial dysfunction of enterocytes and may increase intestinal permeability as indicated by previous studies with palmitic acid (C16:0). Yet the impact of other dietary saturated fatty acids remains poorly described.

Kinetics of mucosal ileal gamma-interferon response during cryptosporidiosis in immunocompetent neonatal mice.

The kinetics of serum and ileal interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) content were determined during recovery from cryptosporidiosis in NMRI suckling mice. A total of 60 mice aged 4 days were inoculated by intragastric gavage with 10(4) cryptosporidia (n = 30) or phosphate-buffered saline (n = 30). Six animals per group were killed on days 0, 3, 6, 9 and 13 postinoculation.

A high-yield outbred suckling mouse model of cryptosporidiosis.

Outbred suckling mice (NMRI strain) were used as hosts. They were initially inoculated with oocysts of human origin, and subsequently with parasites recovered from the mouse ileal mucosa. Cryptosporidia were counted in an aliquot of whole-ileum homogenate.

Determination of anti-Cryptosporidium coproantibodies by time-resolved immunofluorometric assay.

The role of the mucosal immune response against Cryptosporidium has been suggested by studies on the therapeutic effects of hyperimmune colostrum. In order to study the intestinal response to this infection, we have developed a sandwich-type time-resolved immunofluorometric assay for the determination of anti-Cryptosporidium coproantibodies. This assay has the inherent sensitivity of an immunoassay without the problems due to background responses from other biological compounds, and is thus suitable for faecal samples.

Sexual stage development of cryptosporidia in the Caco-2 cell line.

We used the spontaneously differentiated human intestinal epithelial cell line Caco-2 to develop an in vitro model of Cryptosporidium sp. infection. The mean cell infection rate was 3% +/- 2%.