Abstract
BACKGROUND: Researches on Chagas disease still use several animals and rats, due to size and susceptibility were preferred by many authors. AIM: To develop an experimental model of megacolon in rats inoculated with the strain Y of Trypanosoma cruzi. METHODS: Thirty male Wistar rats were distributed in three groups inoculated with different inoculants: Group A: 600000, Group B: 1000000 and Group C: 1500000 blood trypomastigotes of T. cruzi. Animals were sedated intramuscularly at zero inoculation time (T0) and 60 days after inoculation (T60), to perform the barium enema in order to evaluate the dilatation of the different segments of colon in a comparative study of the measurements obtained, using a digital caliper. Evidence of infection was performed by blood smear collected from the animal's tail 18 days after inoculation with observation of blood forms. RESULTS: Comparing the intestinal diameter of the inoculated animals with 60,0000 trypomastigotes in the T0 of infection with T60 days after the inoculation, significant dilatation was observed between the proximal, medial and distal segments (p<0.01), indicating the establishment of the megacolon model. In addition, comparing intestinal diameter between the different segments, with in the T0 of infection and the T60 after inoculation, significant alterations were observed (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The proposed model was possible for in vivo studies of alterations due to infection by T. cruzi and functional alterations of the colon. In addition, the changes manifested in the colon are not directly proportional to the size of the inoculum, but to the time of infection that the animals were submitted, since the animals inoculated with 60,0000 blood forms were the ones which presented the most significant alterations.