title: Acid phosphatase activity of promastigotes of Leishmania donovani: a marker of virulence.
abstract: Seven cloned lines of promastigotes of Leishmania donovani (UR 6) were isolated by limiting dilution. One clone, UR6-C25, failed to multiply inside the macrophages of line J774G8 and thus was labelled as avirulent. Another, UR6-C24, multiplied inside macrophages, had a virulence index as high as 93 +/- 9.8 and was thus labelled as highly virulent. The other five clones had variable degree of virulence indices ranging from 46.4 +/- 5.8 to 67.6 +/- 3.5. No significant difference in the degrees of attachment of virulent and avirulent populations of promastigotes to macrophages was observed, suggesting no difference in the ligand utilised by these populations for attachment to the macrophages. Acid phosphatase activity of cloned promastigotes correlated with the degree of virulence. These data suggest that acid phosphatase activity could be used as a marker to differentiate avirulent from virulent populations of promastigotes of L. donovani.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Medicine, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Singla
authors.forename: G K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Khuller
authors.forename: V K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Vinayak
mesh_terms: D000135:Acid Phosphatase / Q000032:analysis*; D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D007893:Leishmania donovani / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D008264:Macrophages / Q000469:parasitology; D051379:Mice; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D000135:Acid Phosphatase