Biomed Res Int. 2013;2013:687835. doi: 10.1155/2014/687835. Epub 2014 Mar 9.

Disruption of Lipid Rafts Interferes with the Interaction of Toxoplasma gondii with Macrophages and Epithelial Cells

Cruz KD¹, Cruz TA¹, Veras de Moraes G¹, Paredes-Santos TC¹, Attias M¹, de Souza W².

 

Abstract

The intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii can penetrate any warm-blooded animal cell. Conserved molecular assemblies of host cell plasma membranes should be involved in the parasite-host cell recognition. Lipid rafts are well-conserved membrane microdomains that contain high concentrations of cholesterol, sphingolipids, glycosylphosphatidylinositol, GPI-anchored proteins, and dually acylated proteins such as members of the Src family of tyrosine kinases. Disturbing lipid rafts of mouse peritoneal macrophages and epithelial cells of the lineage LLC-MK2 with methyl-beta cyclodextrin (M β CD) and filipin, which interfere with cholesterol or lidocaine, significantly inhibited internalization of T. gondii in both cell types, although adhesion remained unaffected in macrophages and decreased only in LLC-MK2 cells. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy confirmed these observations. Results are discussed in terms of the original role of macrophages as professional phagocytes versus the LLC-MK2 cell lineage originated from kidney epithelial cells.

PMID:

24734239

[PubMed - in process]