Experimental paracoccidioidomycosis in mice.

Virulence and infectivity of nine strains of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis were investigated in groups of mice which were inoculated intranasally or intravenously, and some of each were treated with corticosteroids. Fatal infections were not often seen among untreated mice, but mortality usually occurred when corticosteroids were given, regardless of the route of fungus inoculation. Prior treatment did not uniformly increase the incidence of infection, however; only in the case of intranasally inoculated mice was this effect seen. Most strains appeared to be more virulent when administered intravenously, with the exception of a single strain which, under the influence of corticosteroids, repeatedly displayed greatest virulence when given intranasally. All animals that died early in the course of the disease, irrespective of route of inoculation, always had acute pulmonary lesions and usually no other organ was involved. Animals which died later or were sacrificed always had chronic lung lesions. Whether or not chronically diseased animals had additional organ involvement correlated with how the organisms were administered; intravenously inoculated animals usually had extrapulmonary as well as pulmonary lesions, but lesions of those inoculated intranasally were almost exclusively pulmonary. Corticosteroids did not alter the histologic characteristics of either the acute or the chronic type of lesion, but the lesions of treated animals were usually more extensive. Most of the survivors appeared healthy even when infection was extensive.