Mucosal tolerance of the hookworm Ancylostoma caninum in the gut of naturally infected wild dogs

Abstract

Summary: Ancylostoma caninum is a very pathogenic hookworm that locates in the small intestine of the dog and other canid species. The mucosal response of wild dogs naturally infected with A. caninum was investigated in this study. In spite of diffuse infiltrations of the mucosa with CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD11c+, CD21+ or MHC class II antigen cells, no focal infiltrations with any of these cell phenotypes were observed around the buccal capsule or the body of the feeding worms. Very few or no apoptotic cells could be detected around the worms fixed into the mucosa but they were detected on the tip of villi and in the superficial layer of cellular debris and proteinaceous exudate that covers the mucosa. Muc5AC, a mucine associated with expulsion of gut worms (Trichuris muris) was expressed extremely weakly or was not expressed at all in the intestine of the wild dogs infected with A. caninum. Our data show that individual specimens of A. caninum can reside for some time in the mucosa of the gut of dogs undetected and most likely unaffected by the effectors of the local immune response.