Abstract：Brucellosis is a serious zoonotic infectious diseases as Brucella.pp (Bru) infection. The disease will infect people who contact with sick animals or contaminated animal products. The disease incidence is over 500,000 annually on the world. Bru is a facultative intracellular bacteria and its target cells are macrophages and placental trophoblast cells, but Bru can grow and reproduce in dendritic cells (dendritic cell, DCs) also. The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and outer membrane protein are the most important antigen on the cell surface. The bacteria posses the abilities to resist bactericidal effect of phagocyte and prevent the recognition of antigen-specific T cells. Consequently, the micro-environment of host cells is favorable to their survival and reproduction, that lead to a chronic persistent infection at the end. The disease is a Th1-type cellular immune response mainly and DCs play an important role in the anti-Bru infection. This paper reviewed the Bru pathogenic mechanism and the progress of anti-Bru immune response that macrophages and DCs involved.
2012, Vol. 28 
