Cargando…

A review of the human vs. porcine female genital tract and associated immune system in the perspective of using minipigs as a model of human genital Chlamydia infection

Sexually transmitted diseases constitute major health issues and their prevention and treatment continue to challenge the health care systems worldwide. Animal models are essential for a deeper understanding of the diseases and the development of safe and protective vaccines. Currently a good predic...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lorenzen, Emma, Follmann, Frank, Jungersen, Gregers, Agerholm, Jørgen S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4586017/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26411309
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13567-015-0241-9
_version_ 1782392327243825152
author Lorenzen, Emma
Follmann, Frank
Jungersen, Gregers
Agerholm, Jørgen S.
author_facet Lorenzen, Emma
Follmann, Frank
Jungersen, Gregers
Agerholm, Jørgen S.
author_sort Lorenzen, Emma
collection PubMed
description Sexually transmitted diseases constitute major health issues and their prevention and treatment continue to challenge the health care systems worldwide. Animal models are essential for a deeper understanding of the diseases and the development of safe and protective vaccines. Currently a good predictive non-rodent model is needed for the study of genital chlamydia in women. The pig has become an increasingly popular model for human diseases due to its close similarities to humans. The aim of this review is to compare the porcine and human female genital tract and associated immune system in the perspective of genital Chlamydia infection. The comparison of women and sows has shown that despite some gross anatomical differences, the structures and proportion of layers undergoing cyclic alterations are very similar. Reproductive hormonal cycles are closely related, only showing a slight difference in cycle length and source of luteolysing hormone. The epithelium and functional layers of the endometrium show similar cyclic changes. The immune system in pigs is very similar to that of humans, even though pigs have a higher percentage of CD4(+)/CD8(+) double positive T cells. The genital immune system is also very similar in terms of the cyclic fluctuations in the mucosal antibody levels, but differs slightly regarding immune cell infiltration in the genital mucosa - predominantly due to the influx of neutrophils in the porcine endometrium during estrus. The vaginal flora in Göttingen Minipigs is not dominated by lactobacilli as in humans. The vaginal pH is around 7 in Göttingen Minipigs, compared to the more acidic vaginal pH around 3.5–5 in women. This review reveals important similarities between the human and porcine female reproductive tracts and proposes the pig as an advantageous supplementary model of human genital Chlamydia infection.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4586017
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-45860172015-09-29 A review of the human vs. porcine female genital tract and associated immune system in the perspective of using minipigs as a model of human genital Chlamydia infection Lorenzen, Emma Follmann, Frank Jungersen, Gregers Agerholm, Jørgen S. Vet Res Review Sexually transmitted diseases constitute major health issues and their prevention and treatment continue to challenge the health care systems worldwide. Animal models are essential for a deeper understanding of the diseases and the development of safe and protective vaccines. Currently a good predictive non-rodent model is needed for the study of genital chlamydia in women. The pig has become an increasingly popular model for human diseases due to its close similarities to humans. The aim of this review is to compare the porcine and human female genital tract and associated immune system in the perspective of genital Chlamydia infection. The comparison of women and sows has shown that despite some gross anatomical differences, the structures and proportion of layers undergoing cyclic alterations are very similar. Reproductive hormonal cycles are closely related, only showing a slight difference in cycle length and source of luteolysing hormone. The epithelium and functional layers of the endometrium show similar cyclic changes. The immune system in pigs is very similar to that of humans, even though pigs have a higher percentage of CD4(+)/CD8(+) double positive T cells. The genital immune system is also very similar in terms of the cyclic fluctuations in the mucosal antibody levels, but differs slightly regarding immune cell infiltration in the genital mucosa - predominantly due to the influx of neutrophils in the porcine endometrium during estrus. The vaginal flora in Göttingen Minipigs is not dominated by lactobacilli as in humans. The vaginal pH is around 7 in Göttingen Minipigs, compared to the more acidic vaginal pH around 3.5–5 in women. This review reveals important similarities between the human and porcine female reproductive tracts and proposes the pig as an advantageous supplementary model of human genital Chlamydia infection. BioMed Central 2015-09-28 2015 /pmc/articles/PMC4586017/ /pubmed/26411309 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13567-015-0241-9 Text en © Lorenzen et al. 2015 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Review
Lorenzen, Emma
Follmann, Frank
Jungersen, Gregers
Agerholm, Jørgen S.
A review of the human vs. porcine female genital tract and associated immune system in the perspective of using minipigs as a model of human genital Chlamydia infection
title A review of the human vs. porcine female genital tract and associated immune system in the perspective of using minipigs as a model of human genital Chlamydia infection
title_full A review of the human vs. porcine female genital tract and associated immune system in the perspective of using minipigs as a model of human genital Chlamydia infection
title_fullStr A review of the human vs. porcine female genital tract and associated immune system in the perspective of using minipigs as a model of human genital Chlamydia infection
title_full_unstemmed A review of the human vs. porcine female genital tract and associated immune system in the perspective of using minipigs as a model of human genital Chlamydia infection
title_short A review of the human vs. porcine female genital tract and associated immune system in the perspective of using minipigs as a model of human genital Chlamydia infection
title_sort review of the human vs. porcine female genital tract and associated immune system in the perspective of using minipigs as a model of human genital chlamydia infection
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4586017/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26411309
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13567-015-0241-9
work_keys_str_mv AT lorenzenemma areviewofthehumanvsporcinefemalegenitaltractandassociatedimmunesystemintheperspectiveofusingminipigsasamodelofhumangenitalchlamydiainfection
AT follmannfrank areviewofthehumanvsporcinefemalegenitaltractandassociatedimmunesystemintheperspectiveofusingminipigsasamodelofhumangenitalchlamydiainfection
AT jungersengregers areviewofthehumanvsporcinefemalegenitaltractandassociatedimmunesystemintheperspectiveofusingminipigsasamodelofhumangenitalchlamydiainfection
AT agerholmjørgens areviewofthehumanvsporcinefemalegenitaltractandassociatedimmunesystemintheperspectiveofusingminipigsasamodelofhumangenitalchlamydiainfection
AT lorenzenemma reviewofthehumanvsporcinefemalegenitaltractandassociatedimmunesystemintheperspectiveofusingminipigsasamodelofhumangenitalchlamydiainfection
AT follmannfrank reviewofthehumanvsporcinefemalegenitaltractandassociatedimmunesystemintheperspectiveofusingminipigsasamodelofhumangenitalchlamydiainfection
AT jungersengregers reviewofthehumanvsporcinefemalegenitaltractandassociatedimmunesystemintheperspectiveofusingminipigsasamodelofhumangenitalchlamydiainfection
AT agerholmjørgens reviewofthehumanvsporcinefemalegenitaltractandassociatedimmunesystemintheperspectiveofusingminipigsasamodelofhumangenitalchlamydiainfection