Trypanosoma cruzi Differentiates and Multiplies within Chimeric Parasitophorous Vacuoles in Macrophages Coinfected with Leishmania amazonensis.

ABSTRACT: The trypanosomatids Leishmania amazonensis and Trypanosoma cruzi are excellent models for the study of the cell biology of intracellular protozoan infections. After their uptake by mammalian cells, the parasitic protozoan flagellates L. amazonensis and T. cruzi lodge within acidified parasitophorous vacuoles (PVs). However, whereas L. amazonensis develops in spacious, phagolysosome-like PVs that may enclose numerous parasites, T. cruzi is transiently hosted within smaller vacuoles from which it soon escapes to the host cell cytosol. To investigate if parasite-specific vacuoles are required for the survival and differentiation of T. cruzi, we constructed chimeric vacuoles by infection of L. amazonensis amastigote-infected macrophages with T. cruzi epimastigotes (EPIs) or metacyclic trypomas

SUBMITTER: Pessoa CC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4862728 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature