Comparison of infectivity of strains of Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas, 1909).
About: This article is published in Journal of Parasitology.The article was published on 1970-08-01. It has received 87 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Infectivity & Trypanosoma cruzi.
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TL;DR: A systematic study of the distribution of intracellular parasites in the organs and tissues was performed in groups of mice inoculated with 4 different Trypanosoma cruzi strains, finding parasitism of the smooth muscle from hollow organs was significantly higher with ABC and Berenice strains than with Y and CL.
Abstract: A systematic study of the distribution of intracellular parasites in the organs and tissues was performed in groups of mice inoculated with 4 different Trypanosoma cruzi strains. An extremely high parasitism of spleen, liver, and bone marrow was observed in mice inoculated with Y and Berenice strains; with CL strain, however, parasites were almost absent in those organs. Bloodstream forms apparently present differences which facilitate or prevent their uptake by macrophages from the mononuclear phagocytic system. Parasitism of the smooth muscle from hollow organs was significantly higher with ABC and Berenice strains than with Y and CL. The importance of the distribution of intracellular stages in the pathogenesis of the disease is discussed. The existence of Trypanosoma cruzi strains with tropism for different tissues was reported by early workers (Vianna, 1911; Campos, 1927) and since then has been investigated by several authors (Taliaferro and Pizzi, 1955; Bice and Zeledon, 1970; Andrade, 1973; Hanson and Roberson, 1974). Most authors detected accumulation of parasites in tissues or organs examined at definite periods of the experimental disease but little information has been provided concerning the parasite distribu- tion during the course of infection with dif-
256 citations
TL;DR: Success using the LSSP-PCR technique in profiling the T. cruzi parasites present in the hearts of 13 patients with chagasic cardiopathy and in the esophagi of four patients is reported, suggesting that the genetic variability of the parasite is one of the determining factors of the clinical form of the disease.
Abstract: We have previously shown that a low-stringency single-specific primer–polymerase chain reaction (LSSP- PCR) is a highly sensitive and reproducible technique for the genetic profiling of Trypanosoma cruzi parasites directly in tissues from infected animals and humans. By applying LSSP-PCR to the study of the variable region of kinetoplast minicircle from T. cruzi, the intraspecific polymorphism of the kinetoplast-deoxyribonucleic acid (kDNA) sequence can be translated into individual kDNA signatures. In the present article, we report on our success using the LSSP-PCR technique in profiling the T. cruzi parasites present in the hearts of 13 patients with chagasic cardiopathy and in the esophagi of four patients (three of them with chagasic megaesophagus). In two patients, one with the cardiodigestive clinical form of Chagas disease and the other with cardiopathy and an esophageal inflammatory process, we could study both heart and esophagus and we detected distinct kDNA signatures in the two organs. This provides evidence of a differential tissue distribution of genetically diverse T. cruzi populations in chronic Chagas disease, suggesting that the genetic variability of the parasite is one of the determining factors of the clinical form of the disease.
247 citations
TL;DR: Recent surprising findings indicate that host-cell lysosomes are indispensable, either by directly mediating invasion or by retaining these highly motile parasites inside cells.
Abstract: Chagas disease is a debilitating human illness caused by infection with the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. A capacity to invade and replicate within many different cell types is a cornerstone of the remarkable fitness of this parasite. Although invasion occurs independently of actin polymerization, the host cell still participates in the process, often in unexpected ways. Recent surprising findings indicate that host-cell lysosomes are indispensable, either by directly mediating invasion or by retaining these highly motile parasites inside cells.
220 citations
TL;DR: A significant influence of the genetic polymorphism of infecting T. cruzi populations in the pathogenesis of chronic Chagas disease is indicated by the results of a low-stringency single specific primer polymerase chain reaction test.
156 citations
TL;DR: Genotypic characterization of Trypanosoma cruzi has shown a great diversity of the parasite strains, which are formed by groups of heterogeneous sub-population, which present specific characteristics, including distinct histotropism.
Abstract: Morpho-biological diversity of Trypanosoma cruzi has been known since Chagas' first works in 1909. Several further studies confirmed the morphological differences among the parasite strains, which were isolated from different reservoirs and vectors, as well as from human beings. In the early sixties, antigenic differences were found in the parasite strains from various sources. These differences, coupled to the observation of regional variations of the disease, led to the proposal of the term cruzi complex to designate the taxon T. cruzi. Since then this protozoan has been typed in distinct biodemes, zymodemes and lineages which were consensually grouped into T. cruzi I, T. cruzi II and into non-grouped strains. T. cruzi genotypic characterization, initially carried out by schizodeme analysis and more recently by various other techniques, has shown a great diversity of the parasite strains. In fact, T. cruzi is formed by groups of heterogeneous sub-population, which present specific characteristics, including distinct histotropism. The interaction of the different infecting clones of the cruzi complex and the human host will determine the morbidity of the disease.
127 citations
Cites background or methods from "Comparison of infectivity of strain..."
...The combination of several of these factors might explain the variability in the biological behavior of the parasite (Andrade et al. 1970, Bice & Zeledón 1970, Magalhães et al. 1996)....
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...…reproductive systems and others) (Dias 1934, Silva & Nussenzweig 1953, Taliaferro & Pizzi 1955, Andrade & Andrade 1966, 1968, Watkins 1966, Andrade et al. 1970, Bice & Zeledón 1970, Tay et al. 1973, Andrade 1974, Hanson & Roberson 1974, Amaral et al. 1975, Melo & Brener 1978, Lenzi et al. 1998)....
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...Nevertheless, other lineages have been used for characterization studies (Bice & Zeledón 1970, Andrade et al. 1985, Araújo & Chiari 1988, Oliveira et al. 1993)....
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...…behavior of the strains in laboratory animals, (ii) biochemical features of the isolates, and (iii) molecular characteristics of the stocks (Bice & Zeledón 1970, Petana & Coura 1974, Miles et al. 1977, Melo & Brener 1978, Morel et al. 1980, Andrade 1985, Araújo & Chiari 1988, Carneiro et…...
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...Since then, other authors demonstrated that the strain tropism is an important biological characteristic to be considered in laboratory animals (Andrade et al. 1970, Bice & Zeledón 1970, Andrade 1974, Hanson & Roberson 1974, Melo & Brener 1978)....
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