Histopathological Study of Experimental and Natural Infections by Trypanosoma cruzi in Didelphis marsupialis

Didelphis marsupialis, the most important sylvatic reservoir of Trypanosoma cruzi, can also main-tain in their anal scent glands the multiplicative forms only described in the intestinal tract of triatomine bugs. A study of 21 experimentally and 10 naturally infected opossums with T. cruzi wa undertaken in order to establish the histopathological pattern under different conditions. Our results showed that the inflammation was predominantly lymphomacrophagic and more severe in the naturally infected animals but never as intense as those described in Chagas ’ disease or in other animal models. The parasitism in both groups was always mild with very scarce amastigote nests in the tissues. In the experimentally infected animals, the inflammation was directly related to the presence of amastigotes nests. Four 24 days-old animals, still in embryonic stage, showed multiple amastigotes nests and moderate inflammatory reactions, but even so they survived longer and presented less severe lesions than experi-mentally infected adult mice. Parasites were found in smooth, cardiac and/or predominantly striated muscles, as well as in nerve cells. Differing from the experimentally infected opossums parasitism in the naturally infected animal