ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ROLE OF GALECTIN 8 IN TRYPANOSOMA CRUZI-INDUCED MYOCARDITIS

PASCUALE, CARLA A.; AOKI P; BERTELLI A; BENATAR A; LEGUIZAMÓN M. SUSANA; SANMARCO L; POSTAN, MIRIAM

Congreso; XXXIV ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BRAZILIAN SOCIETY OF PROTOZOOLOGY. XLV ANNUAL MEETING ON BASIC RESEARCH IN CHAGAS´DISEASE; 2018

Galectins constitute a family of lectins that contain characteristic aminoacid sequences and hold affinity for βgalactosides. Galectin-8 (Gal-8) is included in the tandem repeat group. It has been involved in cellular adhesion, migration, apoptosis, etc., is widely distributed in different tissues and can works through an autocrine/paracrine way. In addition, different authors have proposed Gal-8 to be involved either in proinflammatory or anti-inflammatory events. It is known that T. cruzi cardiomyopathy is based on the induction of a strong inflammation by the parasite persistence in tissue. In order to analyse the role of Gal-8 in an inflammatory infectious context, we used a murine chronic T. cruzi infection model: C57BL/6J (B6, WT) and B6Gal-8 knock out (KO) mice, infected with T. cruzi (Ac strain DTU TcI). Mice were sacrificed at 4 months postinfection. KO cardiac tissue showed increased inflammation score in comparison with WT (p=0.0119). No differences were observed in fibrosis degree and tissue parasites level. In order to identify the immune population in inflamed cardiac tissue, a flow-cytometry analysis was performed. Similar values were found in the percentage of cardiac T lymphocytes (CD3+), and their different subpopulations, between KO and WT mice. We observed a rise in the frequency of macrophages (p=0.0021) in KO heart tissue compared to WT, in agreement with increased cardiac CCL-2 levels. The increment in neutrophil numbers observed in KO versus WT (p=0.0097) did not correlate with cardiac and systemic CXCL1 and CXCL2 levels. These results suggest that neutrophil rise may be instead related to Gal-8 preaparesis induction mechanism. Taken together, our results suggest that Gal-8 participate as an anti-inflammatory molecule in T. cruzi chronic infection. Supported by: Keywords: Galectin; t.cruzi; neutriphil.