CHINESE JOURNAL OF PARASITOLOGY AND PARASITIC DISEASES ›› 2025, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (1): 135-139.doi: 10.12140/j.issn.1000-7423.2025.01.021

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Establishment and influencing factors of experimental animal models for intestinal protozoa infection

ZHANG Xiaocheng1()(), SHEN Yujuan1, HU Yuan1, JIANG Yanyan1, LIU Hua1, CAO Jianping1,2,*()()   

  1. 1 National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Chinese Center for Tropical Diseases Research; National Key Laboratory of Intelligent Tracking and Forecasting for Infectious Diseases; Key Laboratory on Parasite and Vector Biology, National Health Commission; WHO Collaborating Centre for Tropical Diseases; National Center for International Research on Tropical Diseases, Ministry of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200025, China
    2 The School of Global Health, Chinese Center for Tropical Diseases Research, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China
  • Received:2024-06-26 Revised:2024-11-12 Online:2025-02-28 Published:2025-03-26
  • Contact: E-mail: caojp@chinacdc.cn
  • Supported by:
    Three-Year Initiative Plan for Strengthening Public Health System Construction in Shanghai (2023-2025) Key Discipline Project(GWVI-11.1-12);Three-Year Public Health Action Plan (2020-2022) of Shanghai Municipal Public Health System Construction(GWV-10.1-XK13);Clinical Research Special Project for Young Scholars in Shanghai Municipal Health Commission(20214Y0206)

Abstract:

Intestinal protozoa are single-celled eukaryotic microorganisms that are widely distributed in ecological environments. Most of the protozoan isolates are derived from excretions or secretions of individuals carrying cysts, which are used for experimental animal infections following purification and culture. Both the limitations of in vitro culture techniques and the host specificity of protozoa may directly affect the difficulty in the establishment of animal models. This review summarizes major in vitro culture techniques and appropriate animal models, and discusses the factors affecting the establishment of animal models. Considering that novel animal models are more effective to simulate the disease progression of human intestinal protozoan diseases, high attention should be paid to the development of experimental animal models of intestinal protozoan infections, notably novel animal models, so as to provide supports for the establishment and research of animal models of intestinal protozoan infections.

Key words: Intestinal protozoa, In vitro culture, Inoculation, Animal infection, Animal model

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