Peripheral blood fibrocytes: new information to explain the dynamics of Leishmania infection

• Autor(a) principal: Macedo-Silva,Roger Magno
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Santos,Carina de Lima Pereira dos, Diniz,Vanessa Alvaro, Carvalho,Jorge José de, Guerra,Camila, Côrte-Real,Suzana
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
• Texto Completo: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762014000100061
• topic: fibrocyte; Leishmania (L.) amazonensis; cell biology

Fibrocytes are important for understanding the progression of many diseases because they are present in areas where pathogenic lesions are generated. However, the morphology of fibrocytes and their interactions with parasites are poorly understood. In this study, we examined the morphology of peripheral blood fibrocytes and their interactions with Leishmania (L.) amazonensis . Through ultrastructural analysis, we describe the details of fibrocyte morphology and how fibrocytes rapidly internaliseLeishmania promastigotes. The parasites differentiated into amastigotes after 2 h in phagolysosomes and the infection was completely resolved after 72 h. Early in the infection, we found increased nitric oxide production and large lysosomes with electron-dense material. These factors may regulate the proliferation and death of the parasites. Because fibrocytes are present at the infection site and are directly involved in developing cutaneous leishmaniasis, they are targets for effective, non-toxic cell-based therapies that control and treat leishmaniasis.