Histopathological Evaluation of Iron and Iron chelator Deferoxamine in Experimentally Infected Mice with Toxoplasma gondii

Elbahaie, Enas; Mohammed, Faten; Ibrahim, Alia Ibrahim Mohamed; Mostafa, Eman

doi:10.21608/zumj.2023.190273.2738

Histopathological Evaluation of Iron and Iron chelator Deferoxamine in Experimentally Infected Mice with Toxoplasma gondii

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Medical Parasitology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt

10.21608/zumj.2023.190273.2738

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide parasitic disease infecting about one third of human population. With the prevalence of drug-resistant strains on the rise, new therapies for toxoplasmosis are urgently required. Little studies have been ‎managed to evaluate the effect of iron and iron chelators in experimental toxoplasmosis. Therefore, we investigated if the iron chelator, Deferoxamine can affect Toxoplasmosis outcome in experimentally infected mice. Eighty Swiss albino mice were classified into four groups (20 mice each) as follows: (GI): Healthy control group; (GII): infected non-treated control; (GIII): infected iron supplemented group; (GIV): infected deferoxamine treated group. Sacrifice of mice was performed on day 8 post infection for measuring the serum iron level and for histopathological analysis of intestinal tissue samples. Our data indicated that infected-iron supplemented group (GIII) was associated with more increase in the mean serum iron level (150μg/dl). However, the mean serum iron level in deferoxamine treated group (GIV) decreased (77.2μg/dl) with highly statistically significant difference. Those findings were confirmed by histopathological assessment; the infected iron supplemented group (GIII) exhibited marked histopathological changes in the intestinal tissues of experimentally infected mice that were greatly improved in GIV after chelation of iron using deferoxamine treatment. Finally, the present work showed that the acquisition of host iron by T.gondii is a critical step in the progression of infection and is determinant in its outcome. Therefore, deferoxamine could be a promising drug to control acute T.gondii infection due to the limitation of iron availability, and further research is necessary to elucidate these points.

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