AI Article Synopsis
- Intracellular parasites like Leishmania major can hide in mammalian hosts even after the disease appears cured, but how they persist is not well known.
- Research shows that about 40% of these parasites in mice are found within fibroblasts in lymph nodes, which form a supportive network.
- Compared to macrophages, activated fibroblasts are less effective at killing L. major, indicating that fibroblasts play a key role in the chronic phase of the infection and may help the parasites survive without causing symptoms.
Article Abstract
Intracellular parasites are known to persist lifelong in mammalian hosts after the clinical cure of the disease, but the mechanisms of persistence are poorly understood. Here, we show by confocal laser microscopy that in the draining lymph nodes of mice that had healed a cutaneous infection with Leishmania major, 40% of the persisting parasites were associated with fibroblasts forming the reticular meshwork of the lymph nodes. In vitro, both promastigotes and amastigotes of L. major infected primary skin or lymph node fibroblasts. Compared with macrophages, cytokine-activated fibroblasts had a reduced ability to express type 2 nitric oxide synthase and to kill intracellular L. major. These data identify fibroblasts as an important host cell for Leishmania during the chronic phase of infection and suggest that they might serve as safe targets for the parasites in clinically latent disease.
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2193203 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1084/jem.191.12.2121 | DOI Listing |
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