In vitro characterization of Trypanosoma cruzi infection dynamics in skeletal and cardiac myotubes models suggests a potential cell-to-cell transmission in mediating cardiac pathology.

ABSTRACT: Chagas disease predominantly affects the heart, esophagus, and colon in its chronic phase. However, the precise infection mechanisms of the causal agent Trypanosoma cruzi in these tissue types remain incompletely understood. This study investigated T. cruzi infection dynamics in skeletal (SM) and cardiac myotubes (CM) differentiated from H9c2(2-1) myoblasts (control). SM and CM were generated using 1% fetal bovine serum (FBS) without or with retinoic acid, respectively. Initial invasion efficiencies and numbers of released parasites were equivalent between undifferentiated and differentiated cells (~0.3-0.6%). Concomitantly, parasite motility patterns were similar across cell lines. However, CM demonstrated significantly higher infection kinetics over time, reaching 13.26% infected cells v

SUBMITTER: Contreras-Ortiz JME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11226117 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature