Experimental-Biological Model of Bartonellosis

Abstract

Bartonella are known to be important causes of zooanthroponotic diseases. The range of human infection varies from mild lymphadenopathy and asymptomatic bacteremia to life-threatening systemic disease in immunocompromised patients. Microbiological improvements in isolation methods and PCR amplification of organism-specific DNA sequences have resulted in a dramatic increase in reports describing human patients with bartonellosis. Nevertheless, clearly and successful isolation of Bartonella spp. from bacteremic animals and human patients remains an ongoing challenge. Technology of experimental bartonellosis due to intraperitoneal introduction of biological material samples containing causative agents to laboratory animals is presented in the article. White nonlinear mice with the artificially cyclophosphamide formed immunodeficient state may be used as an experimental model for further investigation of the biological alterations responsible for angiomatosis. On the other hand, we believe that this new method will enhance the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity needed to achieve a diagnosis of bartonellosis.