Trypanosoma brucei Parasites Occupy and Functionally Adapt to the Adipose Tissue in Mice.

ABSTRACT: Trypanosoma brucei is an extracellular parasite that causes sleeping sickness. In mammalian hosts, trypanosomes are thought to exist in two major niches: early in infection, they populate the blood; later, they breach the blood-brain barrier. Working with a well-established mouse model, we discovered that adipose tissue constitutes a third major reservoir for T. brucei. Parasites from adipose tissue, here termed adipose tissue forms (ATFs), can replicate and were capable of infecting a naive animal. ATFs were transcriptionally distinct from bloodstream forms, and the genes upregulated included putative fatty acid ?-oxidation enzymes. Consistent with this, ATFs were able to utilize exogenous myristate and form ?-oxidation intermediates, suggesting that ATF parasites can use fatty acids as an external carbon source. These findings identify the adipose tissue as a niche for T. brucei during its mammalian life cycle and could potentially explain the weight loss associated with sleeping sickness.

SUBMITTER: Trindade S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4906371 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature