help button home button Am J Pathol ASIP MEMBERSHIP
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS

This Article
Right arrow Order Full text via Infotrieve
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Caulfield, J. P.
Right arrow Articles by Dessein, A. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Caulfield, J. P.
Right arrow Articles by Dessein, A. J.

American Journal of Pathology, Vol 120, 380-390, Copyright © 1985 by American Society for Investigative Pathology

REGULAR ARTICLES

Ultrastructure of the attack of eosinophils stimulated by blood mononuclear cell products on schistosomula of Schistosoma mansoni

JP Caulfield, HL Lenzi, P Elsas and AJ Dessein

Purified human eosinophils were treated with peripheral blood mononuclear cell supernatants containing eosinophil cytotoxic enhancing activity (ECEA). Schistosomula of Schistosoma mansoni which had been coated either with antibody (Ab) from the sera of infected patients or with the lectin concanavalin A (Con A) were incubated with ECEA-treated and untreated cells for 2 minutes to 12 hours and examined ultrastructurally. Killing was assayed at 18 hours. ECEA caused an increase in the killing of Ab-coated worms, but Con-A-coated worms were not killed by either ECEA-treated or untreated cells. Eosinophils began to degranulate on Ab-coated worms within 2 minutes and continued to degranulate, so that by 12 hours about half of the parasites had greater than 50% of their surface covered by discharge material. The ECEA-treated cells degranulated more than the untreated cells. There was much less discharge material on Con-A-coated worms than on Ab- coated worms. Eosinophils adhered to discharge material on the surface of both Ab- and Con-A-coated parasites. At 3 and 12 hours, lysed cells and cell fragments were also seen adhering to discharge material. In the absence of discharge material the cells adhered to residual glycocalyx or to the tegumental outer membrane. These studies suggest that eosinophils kill schistosomula by progressively degranulating onto their surface over many hours and that the increased toxicity caused by ECEA is due to an increase in discharge.




HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1985 by the American Society for Investigative Pathology.