Streptozotocin-induced hyperglycaemic mice are susceptible to invasive enteric bacterial infection

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus and diarrhoea are increasingly becoming a global burden especially in developing countries like India. Diabetic patients are observed to be susceptible to the pathogenic bacteria particularly invasive enteric bacterial infection. Our study was designed on changes in pathophysiological parameters observed in streptozotocin-induced hyperglycaemic mice. In our experiments we infected streptozotocin treated hyperglycemic mice and control mice with different enteric pathogenic bacteria: non-typhoidal Salmonella, Shigella and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Morbidity, mortality and bacterial load were found to be elevated in diabetic mice than in normal mice. Isolated peritoneal macrophages from hyperglycaemic mice showed lower level of phagocytic and bacterial killing ability. We hypothesized down regulation of innate immune response due to hyperglycaemia in mice could be a possible reason for increase vulnerability towards enteric bacterial infection.