Mammalian cellular culture models of trypanosoma cruzi infection: A review of the published literature

Gabriel Alberto Duran-Rehbein, Juan Camilo Vargas-Zambrano, Adriana Cuéllar, Concepción Judith Puerta, John Mario Gonzalez

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cellular culture infection with Trypanosoma cruzi is a tool used to dissect the biological mechanisms behind Chagas disease as well as to screen potential trypanocidal compounds. Data on these models are highly heterogeneous, which represents a challenge when attempting to compare different studies. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the cell culture infectivity assays performed to date. Scientific journal databases were searched for articles in which cultured cells were infected with any Trypanosoma cruzi strain or isolate regardless of the study's goal. From these articles the cell type, parasite genotype, culture conditions and infectivity results were extracted. This review represents an initial step toward the unification of infectivity model data. Important differences were detected when comparing the pathophysiology of Chagas disease with the experimental conditions used in the analyzed studies. While Trypanosoma cruzi preferentially infects stromal cells in vivo, most of the assays employ epithelial cell lines. Furthermore, the most commonly used parasite strain (Tulahuen-TcVI) is associated with chagasic cardiomyopathy only in the Southern Cone of South America. Suggestions to overcome these discrepancies include the use of stromal cell lines and parasite genotypes associated with the known characteristics of the natural history of Chagas disease.

Original languageEnglish
Article number38
JournalParasite
Volume21
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014

Keywords

  • Chagas disease
  • In vitro cell culture
  • Literature review
  • Trypanosoma cruzi

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