Abstract
Leishmania tropica promastigotes are easily attached to and engulfed by C3H peritoneal macrophages in vitro at 37°C. Different sugars at 0.3–0.5 M inhibited in vitro the attachment ofL. tropica promastigotes to C3H peritoneal macrophages with lactose (Gal-β [1→4]Glc) being the most efficient. Inhibition of attachment is also affected by pre-treatment of promastigotes with galactose oxidase. Oligosaccharides extending from promastigote and amastigote cell surfaces contain an important proportion of non-reducing galactose as does the carbohydrate-rich factor (EF) excreted by promastigotes ofL. tropica andL. donovani. This study suggests thatLeishmania, an obligatory intracellular parasite, uses as a means of entering the host cell a cellular mechanism similar to that used in the removal of damaged cells from blood circulation. This mechanism is assumed to take advantage of the exposed sugars, particularly the exposed non-reducing galactose, on the parasite surface during the stage of attachment. Once the parasite is inside the cell, the EF it produces might have a protective function, being inhibitory to some of the host cell lysosomal enzymes.
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Zehavi, U., El-On, J., Pearlman, E. et al. Binding ofLeishmania promastigotes to macrophages. Z. Parasitenkd. 69, 405–414 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00927696
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00927696