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Immunogold labeling and cerium cytochemistry of the enzyme ecto-5'-nucleotidase in promastigote forms of Leishmania species

1993; Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Ministério da Saúde; Volume: 88; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1590/s0074-02761993000300009

1678-8060

Suzana Côrte‐Real, Renato Porrozzi, Maria de Nazareth Leal de Meirelles,

Trypanosoma species research and implications

We have applied both enzyme cytochemistry and immunological labeling techniques to characterize the enzyme 5'-nucleotidase (5'-Nase), at the ultrastructural level, in promastigote forms of four Leishmania species: Leishmania amazonensis, Leishmania mexicana, Leishmania donovani and Leishmania chagasi. The cerium phosphate staining was localized at the surface of the cell body, the flagellum and the flagellar pocket membranes of all the parasites studied. The immunogold labelling technique confirmed these results. In this report we localized 5'-Nase in L. chagasi and L. amazonensis which have been implicated respectively in visceral and cutaneous forms of leishmaniasis. In addition, we confirmed the localization of this phosphomonoesterase in the other two species studied. The superior quality of the images, obtained with both methodologies, confirms that these parasites possess mechanisms capable of hydrolyzing nucleotide monophosphates, and that the expression of 5'-Nase is associated with the outer surface of the plasma membrane.