Role of Galectin-8 in the outcome of Trypanosoma cruzi - myocarditis

BERTELLI, A; SANMARCO, L; PASCUALE, C; POSTAN, M; AOKI, P; LEGUIZAMON, S

Buenos Aires

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta de Sociedades de Biociencias; 2017

Galectins are a family of lectins that contain characteristic aminoacidsequences and have affinity for B-galactosides. Galectin-8(Gal-8), which belongs to the tandem repeat group, it is widely distributedin tissues and secreted to the extracellular media, acting inan autocrine/paracrine manner. It participates in cellular adhesion,migration, and apoptosis, mainly in cancer and autoimmune disorders.Different authors have also proposed Gal-8 to be involvedin pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory events. Chagasic cardiomyopathyis a chronic disease, whose development is based onthe induction of a strong inflammation by Trypanosoma cruzi persistencein cardiac tissue. The aim of this work was to analyze therole of Gal-8 in an inflammatory context induced by T. cruzi. Gal-8knock out (KO) and C57/BL6 (WT) mice were infected with T. cruzistrain Ac and sacrificed at 4 months post infection for histopathologyand phenotyping analysis. The inflammation score in cardiac tissueof KO mice was significantly higher compared with WT mice. Nodifference was found in fibrosis induction. The cellular populationpresent in infected heart tissues, was characterized by flow-cytometryanalysis. There were no differences in the levels of (CD-11b+Ly6ChighLy6G-) and (CD11b+Ly6ClowLy6G-) monocytes, dendriticcells (CD11c+F4/80-CD11b+) ;( CD11c+F4/80-CD11b-) andT lymphocytes (CD3+CD4+ and CD3+CD8+) between KO and WTinfected hearts. However, inflammatory cells isolated from KO infectedmice showed higher frequency of neutrophils (P=0.0097) andmacrophages (P=0.0021) compared to WT mice, with concomitantincrease of MCP-1 mRNA expression levels (P=0.0023). In agreement,increased levels of neutrophils (p=0.033) were observed inspleens from KO infected mice compared to those of WT mice.The reported participation of Gal-8 in preaperesis induction on leukocytesis in agreement with our findings.Altogether, our results suggest a Gal-8 anti-inflammatory role in T.cruzi infection.