Brugia malayi: arachidonic acid uptake into lipid bodies of adult parasites |
| |
Authors: | D L Longworth R A Monahan-Earley A M Dvorak P F Weller |
| |
Institution: | Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. |
| |
Abstract: | Lipid bodies are non-membrane bound intracellular organelles, which have been recognized morphologically in a diversity of mammalian and nonmammalian cells, but are of uncertain function. In mammalian cells, in addition to serving as a storage site of cholesterol and triglyceride, lipid bodies can be a repository of esterified arachidonic acid. Adult worms of the human filarial parasite Brugia malayi have been found to esterify exogenous 3H]arachidonic acid into parasite phospholipids and neutral lipids. Electron microscopic autoradiography demonstrated that 3H]arachidonate was preferentially incorporated into filarial lipid bodies. The dominant incorporation of arachidonate into lipid bodies of a nematode establishes that lipid bodies are a site of arachidonic acid accumulation in nonmammalian, as well as mammalian, cells. |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|