Trypanosoma cruzi: Fusogenic ability of membranes from cultured epimastigotes in interaction with human syncytiotrophoblast
Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes cultured in vitro were disrupted by successive freezing and thawing and subsequent sonication. The total homogenate was fractionated by differential centrifugation to obtain an enriched plasma membrane fraction. The proteins of subcellular parasite fractions were labe...
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Published in | Experimental parasitology Vol. 56; no. 2; pp. 169 - 179 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
San Diego, CA
Elsevier Inc
01.01.1983
Elsevier |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes cultured
in vitro were disrupted by successive freezing and thawing and subsequent sonication. The total homogenate was fractionated by differential centrifugation to obtain an enriched plasma membrane fraction. The proteins of subcellular parasite fractions were labeled with
131I and their binding to membrane fractions from human placenta syncytiotrophoblast was studied. Syncytiotrophoblast fractions enriched in plasma showed higher specific activity for binding an enriched
T. cruzi plasma membrane fraction compared with other fractions of syncytiotrophoblast. The properties of this interaction were studied with digestive enzymes (trypsin and phospholipase A
2). The results showed that both proteins and lipids could be involved in this interaction. The Ca
2+ requirements for the membrane-membrane interaction are different for the two membranes studied. Also the enriched plasma membrane
T. cruzi fraction had a higher capacity to induce fusion processes than the other subcellular fractions. The above results indicate that a preferential syncytiotrophoblast
T. cruzi interaction may occur between the two cell surfaces as compared to intracellular membranes and that the parasite surface is able to induce an instability process leading to membrane fusion. These results may have implications in regard to the mechanism of entry of the parasite into cells. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0014-4894 1090-2449 |
DOI: | 10.1016/0014-4894(83)90059-0 |