Bovine TB: Research project summary
Project SE3225: In depth histopathology characterisation of lymph node granulomas in natural and experimental bovine tuberculosis (bTB)
Project duration: 1 year
The defining pathological aspect of bovine tuberculosis infection is the granulomatous lesion which is found most often in the lungs and in the local draining lymph nodes to the lung.
The first aim of this project was to compare lymph node granulomas from naturally infected cattle, with those of experimentally infected cattle. Using a lesion grading system the stages of granuloma development were found to be comparable between the two study groups and the numbers of acid fast bacilli (characteristic for mycobacterial infections) were also similar. This supports previous observations that the disease model employed in studies reproduces similar pathology to that presented during natural infections.
Protective immunity against bTB is dependent upon a complex interaction between T lymphocytes and macrophages. The study investigated the relative contribution of the different T cell subsets using immune cell staining methods on individual lymph node sections.
Using a combination of these techniques the temporal association of granuloma development was undertaken directly on bTB infected lymph nodes. Results show that there are some differences in T cell subset localisation between early and late stage granulomas but that differences between early (5 week infection) and later (29 week infection) were not marked.
The tools developed in this project are integrated into the investigation of safety/efficacy of candidate vaccines at the VLA.
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Page last modified:
July 7, 2008