Cruzipain, a major Trypanosoma Cruzi antigen, promotes arginase-2 expression and survival of neonatal cardiomyocytes

AOKI P, GUIÑAZÚ N, PELLEGRINI A, GOTOH T, MASIH DT, GEA S

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-CELL PHYSIOLOGY

Año: 2004 p. 206 - 206

0363-6143

n intense myocarditis is frequently found in the acute phase of Trypanosomacruzi infection. Despite the cardiac damage, infected individuals may remainasymptomatic for decades. Thus T. cruzi may directly prevent cardiomyocyte death to keep heart destruction in check. Recently, it has been shown that Schwann cellinvasion by T. cruzi, their prime target in the peripheral nervous system,suppressed host cell apoptosis caused by growth factor deprivation. Likewise, thetrans-sialidase of T. cruzi reproduced this antiapoptotic activity of theparasite. In this study, we have investigated the effect of cruzipain, anotherimportant T. cruzi antigen, on survival and cell death of neonatal BALB/c mousecardiomyocyte cultures. We have found that cruzipain, as well as T. cruziinfection, promoted survival of cardiomyocytes cultured under serum deprivation. The antiapoptotic effect was mediated by Bcl-2 expression but not by Bcl-xL