Four days after these injections, peritoneal exudate cells were harvested from the mice by lavage with 5?ml of ice-cold PBS and depleted of red blood cells with 0.83% NH4Cl and 0.01?M Tri-HCl, pH?7.2. killer (NK) cells, CD4+ cells and CD8+ cells [5]. In TSPAN12 one study, [8]. CCR5-deficiency in mice decreases susceptibility to experimental cerebral malaria infection [9], suggesting that interactions between host CCR5 and malaria parasites are important for parasite control of the infection. (Z)-Thiothixene During cyclophilin 18 (TgCyp18) was found to induce IL-12 production through binding to CCR5 in a CCR5-dependent manner [10,11]. In the case of and infections. However, the role played by CCR5 in protective immunity against has not been clarified as yet. In this study, we investigated the sensitivity levels and degree of neurological impairment of CCR5?/? mice infected (intraperitoneally) with to obtain better understanding of the role of CCR5-dependent host immunity. Methods Ethics statement This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. The protocol was approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of the Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (Permit number 25C59, 24C15, 23C61). All surgery for sampling of cardiac puncture blood, tissues, bones and ascites was performed under isoflurane anesthesia, and all efforts were made to minimize animal suffering. Mice C57BL/6?J mice, 5C8 weeks of age, were obtained from Clea Japan (Tokyo, Japan). CCR5 knockout (CCR5?/?) mice (B6.129P2-Ccr5tmlKuz/J, Stock No. 005427) were purchased from the Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, Maine, USA). The mice were housed under specific pathogen-free conditions in the animal facility of the National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases at the Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro, Japan. Parasites and (Nc-1 isolate) tachyzoites and its recombinants expressing the GFP were maintained in monkey kidney adherent epithelial cells (Vero cells) cultured in Eagles minimum essential medium (EMEM, Sigma, St Louis, USA) supplemented with 8% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum (FBS). To purify tachyzoites, parasites and host cell debris were washed with PBS, after which the final pellet was resuspended in PBS and passed through a 27-gause needle and a 5.0-m-pore-size filter (Millipore, Bedford, MA, USA). Male (Z)-Thiothixene mice were experimentally infected by the i.p. route with 1??106 tachyzoites per mouse. All mice were monitored for survival and scored on a daily basis for the neurological signs characteristic of neosporosis, including torticollis and circling motion. Clinical score-assessed neurological signs such as torticollis and circling motion scored (Z)-Thiothixene 1 point each. Dead mice showing neurological signs were assigned a maximal score of 2. The scores were assessed using a modified set of criteria adapted by Reichel and Ellis [14]. Quantitation of parasite burden For DNA preparation, brain, lung, liver, and spleen were collected, frozen at ?80C, and resuspended in ten weight equivalent volumes of extraction buffer (0.1?M TrisCHCl pH?9.0, 1% SDS, 0.1?M NaCl, and 1?mM EDTA) and 100?g/ml of Proteinase K at 50C. DNA was (Z)-Thiothixene purified by phenolCchloroform extraction and ethanol precipitation. For each tissue, the DNA concentration was adjusted to 50?ng per l and 1?l was used as template DNA. Parasite DNA was quantified as described previously [15]. Oligonucleotide primers were designed to amplify a 76-bp DNA fragment of the Nc5 sequence (GenBank accession no. “type”:”entrez-nucleotide”,”attrs”:”text”:”X84238″,”term_id”:”1085092″,”term_text”:”X84238″X84238). The Nc5 forward primer spans nucleotides 248 to 257 (5-ACT GGA GGC ACG CTG AAC AC-3) and the Nc 5 reverse primer spans nucleotides 303 to 323 (5-AAC AAT GCT TCG CAA GAG GAA-3). PCRs (25-l total volume) contained 1??SYBR Green PCR Buffer, 2?mM MgCl2, a 200?M concentration each of dATP, dCTP, and dGTP, 400?M dUTP, 0.625 U of AmpliTaq Gold DNA polymerase, and 0.25 U of AmpErase UNG (urasil-N-glycosilase) (all of which are included in the Power (Z)-Thiothixene SYBR Green PCR Master Mix, PE Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA); additionally, 20 pmol of each primer (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Inc., Piscataway, NJ) and 1?l.