Franzen Caspar, Hösl Melanie, Salzberger Bernd, Hartmann Pia
Department of Internal Medicine I, University of Regensburg, 93042 Regensburg, Germany.
J Parasitol. 2005 Aug;91(4):745-9. doi: 10.1645/GE-468R.1.
Microsporidia are obligate intracellular parasites infecting a broad range of vertebrates and invertebrates. Various microsporidian species induce different clinical pictures in humans. The reason for this is not clear. It has been speculated that the different microsporidian species are transmitted by various routes, thus causing infections in different organs. Another possibility is that the diverse microsporidia have different tropisms to organ-specific cells, thus causing various diseases. In this study, we investigated the uptake of microsporidian spores by different cells with an immunofluorescence staining technique to investigate whether there is a difference between microsporidian species as well as between different cells. Using this technique, we were able to distinguish between intra- and extracellular microsporidian spores. All examined cell lines were able to internalize microsporidian spores, but the extent of internalization differed significantly between the cells. Although the results showed some patterns that correlate with the distribution of the parasites in humans, the different clinical pictures cannot be sufficiently explained by this phenomenon, so it seems more likely that the various clinical manifestations caused by the different microsporidian species are a consequence of different infection routes rather than of different affinities of the microsporidian species to different cells.
微孢子虫是专性细胞内寄生虫，可感染多种脊椎动物和无脊椎动物。不同种类的微孢子虫会在人类身上引发不同的临床表现。其原因尚不清楚。据推测，不同种类的微孢子虫通过多种途径传播，从而在不同器官引发感染。另一种可能性是，不同的微孢子虫对器官特异性细胞具有不同的嗜性，从而导致各种疾病。在本研究中，我们采用免疫荧光染色技术研究不同细胞对微孢子虫孢子的摄取情况，以探究微孢子虫不同种类之间以及不同细胞之间是否存在差异。利用该技术，我们能够区分细胞内和细胞外的微孢子虫孢子。所有检测的细胞系都能够内化微孢子虫孢子，但细胞之间内化的程度差异显著。尽管结果显示出一些与寄生虫在人体内分布相关的模式，但不同的临床表现无法通过这一现象得到充分解释，因此，不同种类微孢子虫引起的各种临床表现似乎更可能是不同感染途径的结果，而非微孢子虫不同种类对不同细胞的不同亲和力所致。
