Trypanosoma cruzi: Phagolysosomal fusion after invasion into non professional phagocytic cells.

Early events related with the behaviour of Trypanosoma cruzi within an endocytic vacuole in mouse peritoneal macrophages.

“…(15) Although our observations were made in macrophages only we believe, in view of recent observations reported for muscle cells in culture (12), that the basic phenomenon analysed here occurs, although with a different kinetics, in all types of vertebrate cells which can be infected by T. cruzi.…”

Current understanding of the Trypanosoma cruzi-cardiomyocyte interaction

“…Once inside the cells, the parasite is located within a PV that lacks Ca 2+ –Mg 2+ -ATPase, adenylate cyclase, and anionic sites (Meirelles et al, 1986) but has carbohydrate residues such as N -acetylglucosamine and N -acetylgalactosamine (Barbosa and Meirelles, 1992, 1993). Ultrastructural cytochemistry for the lysosomal enzymes aryl sulfatase and acid phosphatase has revealed the fusion of the parasite-containing vacuole with lysosomes (Meirelles et al, 1987). The acidification of the PV by lysosomal fusion, leading to the activation of TC-TOX and disruption of the PV membrane (Andrews et al, 1990; Hall, 1993), is a prerequisite for the trypomastigote to exit the phagosome, also allowing the parasite to be retained intracellularly and complete its life cycle (Andrade and Andrews, 2004, 2005; Mott and Burleigh, 2008).…”

Characterization of [Ca2+]i responses in primary cultures of mouse cardiomyocytes induced by Trypanosoma cruzi trypomastigotes

“…Primary culture of heart muscle cells (HMC) are an useful model to study T. cruzi-cardiomyocyte interaction (Meirelles et al 1987, 1992, Soeiro et al 1995, Barbosa & Meirelles 1995. Following the normal myogenic process these cells attach to the gelatin-coated substrate and exhibit a typical bipolar aspect.…”