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Infection and Immunity, February 2005, p. 841-848, Vol. 73, No. 2
0019-9567/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.73.2.841-848.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Role of Sulfated Glycans in Adherence of the Microsporidian Encephalitozoon intestinalis to Host Cells In Vitro

J. Russell Hayman,1* Timothy R. Southern,1 and Theodore E. Nash2

Department of Microbiology, James H. Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee,1 Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland2

Received 24 March 2004/ Returned for modification 25 April 2004/ Accepted 25 October 2004

Microsporidia are obligate intracellular opportunistic protists that infect a wide variety of animals, including humans, via environmentally resistant spores. Infection requires that spores be in close proximity to host cells so that the hollow polar tube can pierce the cell membrane and inject the spore contents into the cell cytoplasm. Like other eukaryotic microbes, microsporidia may use specific mechanisms for adherence in order to achieve target cell proximity and increase the likelihood of successful infection. Our data show that Encephalitozoon intestinalis exploits sulfated glycans such as the cell surface glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in selection of and attachment to host cells. When exogenous sulfated glycans are used as inhibitors in spore adherence assays, E. intestinalis spore adherence is reduced by as much as 88%. However, there is no inhibition when nonsulfated glycans are used, suggesting that E. intestinalis spores utilize sulfated host cell glycans in adherence. These studies were confirmed by exposure of host cells to xylopyranoside, which limits host cell surface GAGs, and sodium chlorate, which decreases surface sulfation. Spore adherence studies with CHO mutant cell lines that are deficient in either surface GAGs or surface heparan sulfate also confirmed the necessity of sulfated glycans. Furthermore, when spore adherence is inhibited, host cell infection is reduced, indicating a direct association between spore adherence and infectivity. These data show that E. intestinalis specifically adheres to target cells by way of sulfated host cell surface GAGs and that this mechanism serves to enhance infectivity.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, ETSU/JHQ-COM, Box 70579, Johnson City, TN 37614. Phone: (423) 439-6313. Fax: (423) 439-8044. E-mail: hayman{at}etsu.edu.

Editor: W. A. Petri, Jr.

Infection and Immunity, February 2005, p. 841-848, Vol. 73, No. 2
0019-9567/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.73.2.841-848.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Southern, T. R., Jolly, C. E., Lester, M. E., Hayman, J. R. (2007). EnP1, a Microsporidian Spore Wall Protein That Enables Spores To Adhere to and Infect Host Cells In Vitro. Eukaryot Cell 6: 1354-1362 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Taupin, V., Garenaux, E., Mazet, M., Maes, E., Denise, H., Prensier, G., Vivares, C. P., Guerardel, Y., Metenier, G. (2007). Major O-glycans in the spores of two microsporidian parasites are represented by unbranched manno-oligosaccharides containing {alpha}-1,2 linkages. Glycobiology 17: 56-67 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Xu, Y., Takvorian, P., Cali, A., Wang, F., Zhang, H., Orr, G., Weiss, L. M. (2006). Identification of a New Spore Wall Protein from Encephalitozoon cuniculi. Infect. Immun. 74: 239-247 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Leitch, G. J., Ward, T. L., Shaw, A. P., Newman, G. (2005). Apical Spore Phagocytosis Is Not a Significant Route of Infection of Differentiated Enterocytes by Encephalitozoon intestinalis. Infect. Immun. 73: 7697-7704 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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