Lymphocyte subsets and specific IgG antibody levels in clindamycin-treated and untreated dogs experimentally infected with Babesia gibsoni.

This study was carried out to clarify the role of lymphocyte subpopulations and Babesia-specific antibody on the treatment of clindamycin in dogs infected with B. gibsoni. Ten beagle dogs were divided into two groups: an untreated group (5 dogs) and a clindamycin-treated group (5 dogs), which was administered clindamycin at 25 mg/ kg body weight, per os, q 12 hr from 7 days to 21 days post-infection (PI). On the acute stage of infection, clindamycin treatment resolved anaemia and other clinical findings. There were no significant differences between treated and untreated dogs either in parasitemia levels or Babesial IgG antibody levels. However, morphological changes that indicated degeneration in the majority of parasites were observed. The numbers of CD4(+) showed a significant increase in treated dogs, especially after treatment. On the chronic stage, CD4(+) cells maintained high level both of the treated and untreated dogs. Although parasitemia maintained low level, their relapses were occurred on the 49th day PI in treated dogs and on the 42nd and 63rd PI in untreated dogs. A rapid humoral antibody response was observed in treated dogs, however, lower humoral antibody responses in untreated dogs after relapses. The antibody levels of treated dogs were significantly higher than those of untreated dogs. These results suggested that clindamycin might not eliminate rapidly parasites from peripheral blood, but damage parasites, which might stimulate efficiently humoral and cellular immunity against Babesia infection, and result in an improvement of clinical conditions.