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Infection and Immunity, December 2004, p. 6817-6825, Vol. 72, No. 12
0019-9567/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.72.12.6817-6825.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

NK Cells Contribute to the Control of Trypanosoma cruzi Infection by Killing Free Parasites by Perforin-Independent Mechanisms

Thorsten Lieke,1,2 Sebastian E. B. Graefe,1 Ulricke Klauenberg,1 Bernhard Fleischer,1,2 and Thomas Jacobs1*

Department of Immunology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine,1 Institute of Immunology, University Hospital, Hamburg, Germany2

Received 1 April 2004/ Returned for modification 11 June 2004/ Accepted 17 August 2004

The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi circulates in the blood as trypomastigotes and invades a variety of cells to multiply intracellularly as amastigotes. The acute phase leads to an immune response that restricts the proliferation of the parasite. However, parasites are able to persist in different tissues, which causes the pathology of Chagas' disease. Natural killer (NK) cells play an important role in innate resistance to a variety of pathogens. In the present study we analyzed whether NK cells participated in the control of experimental T. cruzi infection. NK cells were depleted from C57BL/6 mice by antiasialo antibodies. This treatment caused an increased parasitemia during the acute phase, but tissue parasite burdens were not significantly altered according to quantitative real-time PCR. Our results demonstrated that NK cells were activated during the initial phase of a T. cruzi infection and exhibited a contact-dependent antiparasitic activity against extracellular parasites that was independent from perforin. Thus, NK cells limit the propagation of the parasite by acting on circulating T. cruzi trypomastigotes.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Immunology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Str. 76, 20359 Hamburg, Germany. Phone: 49-(0)40-42818-243. Fax: 49-(0)40-42818-400. E-mail: tjacobs{at}bni.uni-hamburg.de.

Editor: S. H. E. Kaufmann

Infection and Immunity, December 2004, p. 6817-6825, Vol. 72, No. 12
0019-9567/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.72.12.6817-6825.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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