Journal
PARASITOLOGY INTERNATIONAL
Volume 58, Issue 4, Pages 424-437Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.parint.2009.08.006
Keywords
Giardia lamblia; beta-lapachone; Starvation; Cell death; Apoptosis
Categories
Funding
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq)
- Fundacao Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo Pesquisa do Estado do Rio dejaneiro (FAPERJ)
- Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES)
- Programa de Nucleos de Excelencia (PRONEX)
- Associacao Universitaria Santa Ursula (AUSU)
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Giardia lamblia is a protozoan that parasitizes the small intestine of vertebrates. It is a cause of intestinal infection and diarrhea and infects millions of people worldwide. This protozoan presents many characteristics common to eukaryotic cells but it lacks organelles found in most eukaryotes (e.g., peroxisomes, typical Golgi complex and mitochondria). Also it presents mitosomes, a relic organelle that appears to be a mitochondrial remnant. Cell death in Giardia was induced by the drug beta-Lapachone and by starvation. Giardia behavior was followed by scanning, transmission and fluorescence microscopy, quantification of cell metabolism using MTT (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide), changes in lipid rafts, using DilC(16) and cholera toxin. Cell shrinkage, chromatin condensation, membrane blebbing and vacuolization provided ultrastructural evidence of apoptosis, whereas the myelinic figures in large vacuoles and LC-3 staining suggested an autophagic process. Lipids rafts were altered by drug treatment and co-localized with regions containing membrane blebbing. The treatment with beta-Lap induced encystation. A search for sequence similarities in databases and protein alignments was carried Out. Although Giardia is an amitochondrial organism, it presented some autophagic-like cell death characteristics and several, but not all, apoptotic characteristics, induced by beta-Lapachone and starvation. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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