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Science 8 March 2002:
Vol. 295. no. 5561, pp. 1892 - 1895
DOI: 10.1126/science.1068732
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Reports

The Role of Endosymbiotic Wolbachia Bacteria in the Pathogenesis of River Blindness

Amélie v. Saint André,1 Nathan M. Blackwell,12 Laurie R. Hall,1 Achim Hoerauf,3 Norbert W. Brattig,3 Lars Volkmann,3 Mark J. Taylor,4 Louise Ford,4 Amy G. Hise,1 Jonathan H. Lass,2 Eugenia Diaconu,2 Eric Pearlman12*

Parasitic filarial nematodes infect more than 200 million individuals worldwide, causing debilitating inflammatory diseases such as river blindness and lymphatic filariasis. Using a murine model for river blindness in which soluble extracts of filarial nematodes were injected into the corneal stroma, we demonstrated that the predominant inflammatory response in the cornea was due to species of endosymbiotic Wolbachia bacteria. In addition, the inflammatory response induced by these bacteria was dependent on expression of functional Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) on host cells.

1 Division of Geographic Medicine,
2 Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
3 Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, 20359 Hamburg, Germany.
4 Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool L3 5QA, UK.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: exp2{at}po.cwru.edu

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