Etiopathogenesis of Burkitt's lymphoma: a lesson from a BL-like in CD1 mouse immune to Plasmodium yoelii yoelii

INTRODUCTION: There is a jaw cancer that develops in children five to eight years old in holoendemic malaria regions of Africa, associated to malaria and Epstein Barr virus infections (EBV). This malignancy is known as endemic Burkitt's lymphoma, and histopatologically is characterized by a starry sky appearance. To date, no histopathologic expression of Burkitt's lymphoma has been reported in non-genetically manipulated experimental animals. The purpose of the study is to describe the case of a mouse immune to Plasmodium yoelii yoelii (Pyy) that developed a Burkitt's lymphoma-like neoplasm after repeated malaria infections. RESULTS: Immune mouse 10 (IM-10) developed neoplasms at eight months of age, after receiving three Pyy inoculations. At autopsy eight subcutaneous tumors were found of which the right iliac fosse tumor perforated the abdominal wall and invaded the colon. The histopathologic study showed that all neoplasms were malignant lymphomas of large non-cleaved cells also compatible with variants or previous states of development of a Burkitt's lymphoma-like. The thymus, however, showed a typical starry sky Burkitt's lymphoma-like neoplasm. CONCLUSIONS: Neoplasm development in CD1 mouse is associated to both, immunity against malaria and continuous antigenic stimulation with living parasites. It is the first observation of a histopathologically expressed Human Burkitt's lymphoma-like neoplasm in a non-genetically manipulated mouse. Chronic immune response associated to neoplasms development could probably be not an exclusive expression of malaria-host interaction but, it could be a pattern that can bee applied also to other agent-host interactions such as host-bacteria, fungus, virus and other parasites.