Growth of Mycobacterium leprae and M. marinum in congenitally athymic (nude) mice

The Continuing Challenges of Leprosy

“…The importance of the T lymphocyte in host resistance was revealed in experimental M. leprae infection of neonatally thymectomized or congenitally athymic mice and rats (75,208,315). In immunocompetent mice, an inoculum of a few thousand bacilli grows locally and plateaus at approximately 1 million organisms per footpad.…”

Susceptibility of Mycobacterium Leprae to the Bactericidal Activity of Mouse Peritoneal Macrophages and to Hydrogen Peroxide

“…leprae is an intracellular parasite found commonly in the macrophages of susceptible hosts-man (Drutz, Chen and Lu, 1972), nude mice and nude rats (Colston and Hilson, 1976;Dawson, Colston and Fieldsteel, 1983) and armadillos (Kirchheimer and Storrs, 1971)-we have failed to demonstrate its growth in these cells in vitro (Sharp and Banerjee, 1984). One possible explanation for this is that M .…”

Insights from animal models on the immunogenetics of leprosy: a review

“…Studies in neonatally thymectomized or congenitally athymic mice and rats (Rees 1966, Colston & Hilson 1976, Dawson et al 1983, Chehl et al 1983), T900r mice (Ebenezer et al 2002), as well as later studies in SCID mice (Yogi et al 1991, Azouaou et al 1993, established the significance of lymphocytes, especially T cells, in host defence in leprosy. In athymic nu/nu mice, multiplication of M. leprae in the foot pad can reach 1 x 10 10 or more bacilli with the infected tissue composed primarily of macrophages heavily laden with the bacilli (Hagge et al 2004).…”