Trypanosoma cruzi chronic infection in Galectin-8 knock out mice

BERTELLI, A; LEGUIZAMÓN, M. SUSANA; PASCUALE, C; POSTAN, M; CAMPETELLA, O

Villa Gral Belgrano, Córdoba

Congreso; Simposio; 2nd Argentinean Symposium on Glycobiology; 2016; 2016

Trypanosoma cruzi is a protozoan parasite and is the ethiological agent of Chagas disease. During the chronic phase of this disease, cardiomegaly, megaesophagous and/or megacolon are observed in 30% of infected patients. The persistent infection also induces strong myocarditis and fibrosis. The immune response can be regulated by interactions between lectins and carbohydrates. Galectin-8 (Gal-8) is widely distributed in different tissues as well as secreted to the extracellular media. This lectin participates in cellular adhesion stimulation and apoptosis in cancer models, migration modulation and autoimmune disorders. In this work, we investigated the possible role of Gal-8 in a model of chronic infection (4 months post infection) in C57BL/6J WT and Gal-8 KO male mice. We assessed the degree of inflammation in histological sections of heart, liver and skeletal muscle stained with HE. At the times pi analyzed, no difference was observed in the degree of fibrosis (Masson's trichrome stain). In relation to the presence of amastigotes, which is the replicative stage of T. cruzi, a significant difference was observed only in skeletal muscle, tissue that is usually a target for T. cruzi. Interestingly, our results showed a correlation of the absence of Gal-8 with a significant increase in inflammation (infiltration and necrosis), compared to those infected and normal controls in heart (p=0.0119), skeletal muscle (p=0.0232) and liver (p=0.0155). These results provide evidence of a possible role of Gal-8 in the modulation of the immune response in T. cruzi chronic infection.