Trypanosoma cruzi Infection Induces Cellular Stress Response and Senescence-Like Phenotype in Murine Fibroblasts.

ABSTRACT: Trypanosoma cruzi infects and replicates within a wide variety of immune and non-immune cells. Here, we investigated early cellular responses induced in NIH-3T3 fibroblasts upon infection with trypomastigote forms of T. cruzi. We show that fibroblasts were susceptible to T. cruzi infection and started to release trypomastigotes to the culture medium after 4 days of infection. Also, we found that T. cruzi infection reduced the number of fibroblasts in 3-day cell cultures, by altering fibroblast proliferation. Infected fibroblasts displayed distinctive phenotypic alterations, including enlarged and flattened morphology with a nuclei accumulation of senescence-associated heterochromatin foci. In addition, infection induced an overexpression of the enzyme senescence

SUBMITTER: Guimaraes-Pinto K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6047053 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature