Anti-inflammatory role of Gal-8 in Trypanosoma cruzi chronic infection

PASCUALE CA; LEGUIZAMON MS; BECCARIA, C ; GRUPPI A; BERTELLI, ADRIANO; CAMPETELLA O

Buenos Aires

Simposio; 3rd Argentinian Symposium on Glycobiology; 2019

Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiological agent of Chagas disease. The parasite persistence isassociated with strong inflammation induction and development of chronic pathologies. Theimmune response can be regulated by interactions between lectins and carbohydrates.Galectin-8 (Gal-8), belongs to the tandem repeat galectin group and participates in cellularadhesion, migration, apoptosis. It was also reported to be involved in pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory processes, as well as in regulatory T cells differentiation. Here, we investigatedthe role of Gal-8 in the murine inflammatory chronic infection induced by T. cruzi (4 months postinfection). Infected C57BL/6J (iWT) and B6Gal-8 knock out (iGal-8KO) showed similarparasitemia and parasite cargo but minor mortality values. iGal-8KO mice displayed anincreased development of splenomegaly (evaluated by cellularity and weight) compared to iWT.Spleen cells analysis by Flow-cytometry showed no percentage differences among CD4 Tlymphocytes, myeloid cells and their different subpopulations, between iGal-8KO and iWT. Weobserved a rise in CD8 T lymphocytes frequency (p=0.0079) and germinal centres (p=0.0046) iniGal-8KO. Strikingly, the frequency of regulatory T cell was significantly reduced in iGal-8KO inagreement with an increased cell proliferation. Taken together with other previous results, thesefindings suggest that Gal-8 would favour the development of an anti-inflammatory profile duringT. cruzi chronic infection.