[Phagocytosis of promastigotes and amastigotes of Leishmania mexicana by the FSDC dendritic cell line: ultrastructural study].

Introduction: Dendritic cells, which capture and present antigen to activate unprimed T cell, are found in most tissues.

Objective: This work describes the ultrastructure of Leishmania mexicana phagocytosis by the fetal skin dendritic cell (FSDC) line, a Langerhans cell line isolated from mouse fetal epidermis immortalized by retroviral transduction of the v-myc oncogene.

Materials And Methods: Leishmania amastigotes were obtained from mouse (BALB/c) lesion and promastigotes from culture (24 degrees C) of the lesion.