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The invasive behaviour of Cryptococcus neoformans: a possibility of direct access to the central nervous system?

Cryptococcocal meningoencephalitis is always considered secondary to initial lung infection. Because of the unquestionable evidence of haematogenious spread from the lungs, few publications have reported about other possible primary sites of infection or other routes to the central nervous system. This study was designed to investigate the infiltrative pattern of C. neoformans in immunocompromised mice by treatment with dexamethasone. The infection was performed by nasal instillation (30 mice) or injection into the retro-orbital space (12 mice). From the group infected intranasally, 3 mice presented diffuse invasive fungal colonisation of the mucosa and submucosa. The histologic findings showed infiltrative growth along the periosteum, sometimes surrounded nervous endings of submucosa, invasion along the olfactory nerve and simultaneous meningeal involvement in 2 mice on the 6th and 8th day of infection. All mice infected into the retro-ocular space developed lesions containing numerous cryptococci in the local of the inoculum. Out of the main lesion we observed preferential growth along the perineural spaces with adherence to the perineurium, perivascular spaces and sometimes along aponeurosis. Simultaneous invasion of trigeminal ganglio and trigeminal branches was observed in 4 mice. These morphologic patterns suggest the hypothesis of direct infiltrative invasion of the central nervous system.