Babesia microti: Biochemistry and function of hamster erythrocytes infected from a human source |
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Authors: | Eugene F Roth Herbert Tanowitz Murray Wittner Yoshihiro Ueda Hsin S Hsieh Gertrude Neumann Ronald L Nagel |
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Institution: | The Polly Annenberg Levee Hematology Center, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 1 Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, New York 10029, U.S.A.;Departments of Medicine and Pathology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, U.S.A. |
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Abstract: | Babesia microti, a protozoan parasite of mammalian erythrocytes was obtained from the blood of an infected human and maintained in golden hamsters, in which a parasitemia of 70% was obtained regularly. The hamsters' response—a subacute, hemolytic anemia—was studied with regard to oxygen affinity and red cell organic phosphate content. In addition, the reduced glutathione status of infected erythrocytes was observed because of the possible importance of this metabolite to parasite growth and red cell integrity. Infected animals developed a severe anemia with reticulocytosis; there occurred a 4-mm decrease in whole blood oxygen affinity without any change in erythrocytes' 2,3-diphosphoglycerate levels. The glutathione content of the infected animals' erythrocytes increased twofold during the course of the infection. In uninfected animals, in which anemia and reticulocytosis had been produced by bleeding, all changes seen in infected animals were reproduced. It was concluded that the changes in the infected animals were due to the anemia and reticulocytosis alone, and that the parasite played no role in these changes apart from being a cause of anemia and reticulocytosis. |
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Keywords: | Protozoa parasitic Hamster golden Erythrocyte Hemoglobin Oxygen affinity 2 3-Diphosphoglycerate Glutathione |
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