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Contribution of Electron and Confocal Microscopy in the Study of Leishmania–Macrophage Interactions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2004

Birgitta Rasmusson  and
Albert Descoteaux
Birgitta Rasmusson
Affiliation:
Division of Medical Microbiology, Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, S-581 85 Linköping, Sweden
Albert Descoteaux
Affiliation:
Institute National de la Recherche Scientifique–Institut Armand-Frappier, Université du Québec, Laval, QC, H7V 1B7, Canada
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Abstract

Promastigotes of the protozoan parasite genus Leishmania are inoculated into a mammalian host when an infected sand fly takes a bloodmeal. Following their opsonization by complement, promastigotes are phagocytosed by macrophages. There, promastigotes differentiate into amastigotes, the form of the parasite that replicates in the phagolysosomal compartments of host macrophages. Although the mechanisms by which promastigotes survive the microbicidal consequence of phagocytosis remain, for the most part, to be elucidated, evidence indicates that glycoconjugates play a role in this process. One such glycoconjugate is lipophosphoglycan, an abundant promastigote surface glycolipid. Using quantitative electron and confocal laser scanning microscopy approaches, evidence was provided that L. donovani promastigotes inhibit phagolysosome biogenesis in a lipophosphoglycan-dependent manner. This inhibition correlates with an accumulation of periphagosomal F-actin, which may potentially form a physical barrier that prevents L. donovani promastigote-containing phagosomes from interacting with endocytic vacuoles. Inhibition of phagosome maturation may constitute a strategy to provide an environment propitious to the promastigote-to-amastigote differentiation.

Keywords

Leishmaniamacrophagephagocytosiselectron microscopyconfocal laser scanning microscopyvirulence
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 10 , Issue 5 , October 2004 , pp. 656 - 661
Copyright
© 2004 Microscopy Society of America

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