C57BL/6 and Congenic Interleukin-10-Deficient Mice Can Serve as Models of Campylobacter jejuni Colonization and Enteritis

Campylobacter jejuni is a globally distributed cause of human food-borne enteritis and has been linked to chronic joint and neurological diseases. We hypothesized that C. jejuni 11168 colonizes the gastrointestinal tract of both C57BL/6 mice and congenic C57BL/6 interleukin-10-deficient (IL-10⁻/⁻) mice and that C57BL/6 IL-10⁻/⁻ mice experience C. jejuni 11168-mediated clinical signs and pathology. Individually housed mice were challenged orally with C. jejuni 11168, and the course of infection was monitored by clinical examination, bacterial culture, C. jejuni-specific PCR, gross pathology, histopathology, immunohistochemistry, and anti-C. jejuni-specific serology. Ceca of C. jejuni 11168-infected mice were colonized at high rates: ceca of 50/50 wild-type mice and 168/170 IL-10⁻/⁻ mice were colonized. In a range from 2 to 35 days after infection with C. jejuni 11168, C57BL/6 IL-10⁻/⁻ mice developed severe typhlocolitis best evaluated at the ileocecocolic junction. Rates of colonization and enteritis did not differ between male and female mice. A dose-response experiment showed that as little as 10⁶ CFU produced significant disease and pathological lesions similar to responses seen in humans. Immunohistochemical staining demonstrated C. jejuni antigens within gastrointestinal tissues of infected mice. Significant anti-C. jejuni plasma immunoglobulin levels developed by day 28 after infection in both wild-type and IL-10-deficient animals; antibodies were predominantly T-helper-cell 1 (Th1)-associated subtypes. These results indicate that the colonization of the mouse gastrointestinal tract by C. jejuni 11168 is necessary but not sufficient for the development of enteritis and that C57BL/6 IL-10⁻/⁻ mice can serve as models for the study of C. jejuni enteritis in humans.