In the histological

analysis, distal colon showed edema, hemorrhage, exudation and inflammatory infiltrations in the lamina propria. Orally immunized selleck compound animals with heat-killed S. dysenteriae type 1 and S. flexneri type 2a strains showed high levels of serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) and mucosal IgA antibodies and conferred significant homologous protective immunity against subsequent challenges with the live strains. The direct administration of shigellae into the cecocolic junction induces acute inflammation, making this animal model useful for assessing shigellosis and evaluating the protective immunity of Shigella vaccine candidates. Bacillary dysentery or shigellosis is an acute colitis caused by enteroinvasive bacteria belonging to the genus Shigella. Shigellosis is an endemic disease throughout the world, particularly in the pediatric population between 1 and 5 years of age in developing countries (Phalipon et al., 2008). Shigellosis can be caused by any of the serotype belonging to four www.selleckchem.com/products/ly2157299.html groups: Group A (Shigella dysenteriae), Group B (Shigella flexneri), Group

C (Shigella boydii) and Group D (Shigella sonnei). Worldwide, 164.7 million episodes of Shigella-mediated infections were reported each year, with ∼1.1 million deaths, mainly due to unhygienic conditions (Kotloff et al., 1999). Mucosally invasive shigellae, which often cause dysentery, are less amenable to the beneficial effects of oral rehydration than noninvasive pathogens,

such as Vibrio cholerae and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli that cause acute watery diarrhea (Levine et al., 2007). In addition, increasing multi-antimicrobial resistance complicated the clinical management of shigellosis (Kotloff et al., 1999). Various in vitro cell culture models as well as studies in animal models including gastrointestinal infection in nonhuman primates have enriched our current understanding of Shigella pathogenesis (Cossart & Sansonetti, 2004; Sansonetti, 2006). Shigella targets the distal region of the colon and rectum (Anand et al., 1986), where the bacteria are captured by specialized M-cells located within the follicle-associated over epithelium. The M-cells deliver bacterial antigens such as lipopolysaccharides and invasive plasmid antigen (Ipa) proteins to the underlying antigen-presenting macrophages and dendritic cells (Phalipon & Sansonetti, 2003). Shigella is phagocytosed by macrophages, but subsequently killed by the pathogen by apoptosis (Phalipon & Sansonetti, 2007). Before death, the infected macrophages release proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and IL-18 (Chen et al., 1996). This helps to trigger a strong inflammatory response that leads to the migration of polymorphonuclear cells such as neutrophils (Anand et al., 1986), which infiltrate the infected site and destabilize the epithelium (Perdomo et al., 1994).