Metabolic labelling and partial characterization of a sulfoglycolipid in Trypanosoma cruzi trypomastigotes

MARÍA LAURA UHRIG; ALICIA S. COUTO; ROSA M. DE LEDERKREMER; BIANCA ZINGALES; WALTER COLLI

CARBOHYDRATE RESEARCH

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 1992 vol. 231 p. 329 - 334

0008-6215

Trypanosoma cruzi, a parasitic protozoan, is responsible for American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease). The parasite has a complex life cycle. The infective trypomastigote circulates in the blood of vertebrate hosts, penetrates the host cells, and transforms into the dividing amastigote form. When trypomastigotes are ingested by the insect vector, the parasite replicates in the midgut as a non-infective epimastigote but is transformed in the hindgut into metacyclic trypomastigotes which are deposited in the insect faeces and can invade the mammalian host. The chronic phase of Chagas? disease is associated with autoimmune mechanisms. A monoclonal antibody which cross reacts with sulfated lipids from epimastigotes and antigens of mammalian brain has been described and a positive reaction for sulfate has been obtained for the acidic lipid fraction. Many functions have been suggested for sulfated glycolipidss, and their involvement in cell adhesion has been studied recently. We now report on the structure of acidic glycolipids previously detected? in cell-culture trypomastigotes.