Hemolytic activity of Trichomonas vaginalis and Tritrichomonas foetus

The hemolytic activity of live isolates and clones of Trichomonas vaginalis and Tritrichomonas foetus was investigated. The isolates were tested against human erythrocytes. No hemolytic activity was detected by the isolates of T. foetus. Whereas the isolates of T. vaginalis lysed erythrocytes from a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Geraldo A De Carli, Philippe Brasseur, Ana C da Silva, Aline Wendorff, Marilise Rott
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ) 1996-02-01
Series:Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
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Online Access:http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02761996000100019
Description
Summary:The hemolytic activity of live isolates and clones of Trichomonas vaginalis and Tritrichomonas foetus was investigated. The isolates were tested against human erythrocytes. No hemolytic activity was detected by the isolates of T. foetus. Whereas the isolates of T. vaginalis lysed erythrocytes from all human blood groups. No hemolysin released by the parasites could be detected. Our preliminary results suggest that hemolysis depend on the susceptibility of red cell membranes to destabilization and the intervention of cell surface receptors as a mechanism of the hemolytic activity. The mechanism could be subject to strain-species-genera specific variation of trichomonads. The hemolytic activity of T. vaginalis is not due to a hemolysin or to a product of its metabolism. Pretreatment of trichomonads with concanavalin A reduced levels of hemolysis by 40%.
ISSN:0074-0276
1678-8060