Volume 15, No 9, Sep 2005
ISSN: 1001-0602
EISSN: 1748-7838 2018
impact factor 17.848*
(Clarivate Analytics, 2019)
Volume 15 Issue 9, September 2005: 704-716
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Trichomonas vaginalis perturbs the junctional complex in epithelial cells
Rodrigo Furtado MADEIRO da COSTA1,2, Wanderley de SOUZA2,3, Marlene BENCHIMOL4, John F ALDERETE5, José Andrés MORGADO-DÍAZ2,*
1Programa de Pós Graduação em Ciências Morfológicas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ
20231-050, Brazil
2Grupo de Biologia Estrutural, Divisão de Biologia Celular, Centro de Pesquisa, Instituto Nacional de Câncer, Rio de
Janeiro, RJ 20231-050, Brazil
3Laboratório de Ultraestrutura Celular Hertha Meyer, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do
Rio de Janeiro, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21944-900, Brazil
4Laboratório de Ultraestrutura Celular, Universidade Santa Úrsula, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22231-010, Brazil
5Department of Microbiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX 78229-3900, USA
Correspondence: José Andrés MORGADO-DÍAZ(jmorgado@inca.gov.br)
Trichomonas vaginalis, a protist parasite of the urogenital tract in humans, is the causative agent of trichomonosis, which in recent years have been associated with the cervical cancer development. In the present study we analyzed the modifications at the junctional complex level of Caco-2 cells after interaction with two isolates of T. vaginalis and the influence of the iron concentration present in the parasite's culture medium on the interaction effects. Our results show that T. vaginalis adheres to the epithelial cell causing alterations in the junctional complex, such as: (a) a decrease in transepithelial electrical resistance; (b) alteration in the pattern of junctional complex proteins distribution as observed for E-cadherin, occludin and ZO-1; and (c) enlargement of the spaces between epithelial cells. These effects were dependent on (a) the degree of the parasite virulence isolate, (b) the iron concentration in the culture medium, and (c) the expression of adhesin proteins on the parasite surface.
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