{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,6]],"date-time":"2026-10-06T16:35:12Z","timestamp":1791304512899,"version":"4.3.1"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,6]],"date-time":"2026-07-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1783296000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Microbiol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Oral infection is a major route of\n                    <jats:italic>Brucella<\/jats:italic>\n                    transmission; however, systematic reports on the dynamic multiorgan damage induced by this route are still lacking.\n                    <jats:italic>Brucella<\/jats:italic>\n                    preferentially colonises reproductive organs (e.g., the uterus) and immune organs, leading to reproductive system diseases and chronic infection in humans. In this study, female BALB\/c mice were inoculated with\n                    <jats:italic>Brucella melitensis<\/jats:italic>\n                    (\n                    <jats:italic>B. melitensis<\/jats:italic>\n                    ) via intragastric gavage. Uterus, spleen, lung, and lymph node samples were collected over 8 weeks post-infection, and bacterial burden, organ weight, H&amp;amp;E histopathology, immunohistochemical staining for\n                    <jats:italic>Brucella<\/jats:italic>\n                    antigen, and flow cytometric analysis of F4\/80\n                    <jats:sup>+<\/jats:sup>\n                    CD11b\n                    <jats:sup>+<\/jats:sup>\n                    macrophages were evaluated. The results showed that bacteria were detectable in all examined organs as early as 1 day post-infection, indicating rapid dissemination from the gastrointestinal tract. Bacterial loads in the lung and lymph nodes peaked at 1 week and then declined, but remained detectable up to 8 weeks. In the spleen and uterus, bacterial loads peaked at 2 weeks, and the bacterial load in the reproductive organ (uterus) was consistently lower than that in immune organs (spleen and lymph nodes). Splenic weight peaked at 2 weeks, whereas uterine weight peaked at 4 weeks. Histopathology revealed that the most severe lesions in the uterus, spleen, and lymph nodes occurred at 2 weeks post-infection, with bacteria persisting up to 8 weeks. The lung exhibited acute lesions followed by marked inflammatory resolution, with a significant reduction in bacterial load at 8 weeks. Flow cytometry showed that the proportion of F4\/80\n                    <jats:sup>+<\/jats:sup>\n                    CD11b\n                    <jats:sup>+<\/jats:sup>\n                    macrophages in the uterus and spleen increased significantly from 1 to 4 weeks post-infection, peaked at 2 weeks, and gradually decreased to levels below those of the PBS control group by 8 weeks (\n                    <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                    &amp;lt;0.01). This study systematically describes the dynamic pathological and immunological changes in the reproductive and immune organs of mice following oral\n                    <jats:italic>Brucella<\/jats:italic>\n                    infection, providing a mouse model basis for studies on the pathogenesis of brucellosis and vaccine evaluation.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2026.1871530","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,6]],"date-time":"2026-07-06T05:36:43Z","timestamp":1783316203000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Oral Brucella melitensis infection leads to persistent bacterial colonisation and dynamic histopathology in reproductive and immune organs of female mice"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Chuang","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi","place":["Xinjiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiarui","family":"Luo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi","place":["Xinjiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhenglong","family":"Chai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi","place":["Xinjiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Siyu","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi","place":["Xinjiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xuanji","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi","place":["Xinjiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhendong","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopedic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University","place":["Shihezi, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuejie","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Reproductive Medicine Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi","place":["Xinjiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fengbo","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi","place":["Xinjiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1007\/s12223-019-00691-6","article-title":"Dendritic cells and Brucella spp. interaction: The sentinel host and the stealthy pathogen.","volume":"65","author":"Avila-Calder\u00f3n","year":"2020","journal-title":"Folia Microbiol."},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"36663","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-025-20507-7","article-title":"Reverse vaccinology-driven construction and bioinformatics validation of a multi-epitope vaccine against Brucella spp.","volume":"15","author":"Chai","year":"2025","journal-title":"Sci. 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