Effect of sphingosine and phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate on the growth and dimethylsulfoxide-induced differentiation in the insect trypanosomatid Herpetomonas samuelpessoai

• Main Authors: André Luis Souza dos Santos, Rosangela Maria de Araújo Soares
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Ministério da Saúde 2007-08-01
• Series: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz.
• Subjects: Herpetomonas samuelpessoai; development; dimethylsulfoxide
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762007000500010

We investigated the effect of two modulators of protein kinase C, sphingosine and phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA), on the growth and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO)-induced differentiation in Herpetomonas samuelpessoai. Sphingosine did not stimulate the transformation of undifferentiated-promastigotes in differentiated-paramastigotes. PMA alone or in association with DMSO increased the number of paramastigotes in comparison to control cells. DMSO inhibited the parasite growth (35%) and several unusual morphological features resembling aberrant cell division were observed. Sphingosine did not significantly reduce the growth in contrast to PMA. Collectively, our results demonstrated that the reduction of the proliferation translates in an increase of the differentiation rate in the insect trypanosomatid H. samuelpessoai.