title: The involvement of the spleen during chronic phase of Schistosoma mansoni infection in galectin-3-/- mice.
abstract: Schistosoma mansoni synthesizes glycoconjugates which interact with galectin-3, eliciting an intense humoral immune response. Moreover, it was demonstrated that galectin-3 regulates B cell differentiation into plasma cells. Splenomegaly is a hallmark event characterized by polyclonal B cell activation and enhancement of antibody production. Here, we investigated whether galectin-3 interferes with spleen organization and B cell compartment during chronic schistosomiasis, using wild type (WT) and galectin-3-/- mice. In chronically-infected galectin-3-/- mice the histological architecture of the spleen, including white and red pulps, was disturbed with heterogeneous lymphoid follicles, an increased number of plasma cells (CD19-B220-/lowCD138+) and a reduced number of macrophages (CD19-B220-Mac-1+CD138-) and B lymphocytes (CD19+B220+/highCD138-), compared with the WT infected mice. In the absence of galectin-3 there was an increase of annexin-V+PI- cells and a major presence of apoptotic cells in spleen compared with WT infected mice. In spleen of WT infected mice galectin-3 was largely expressed in lymphoid follicles and extrafollicular sites. Thus, we propose that galectin-3 plays a role in splenic architecture, controlling distinct events such as apoptosis, macrophage activity, B cell differentiation and plasmacytogenesis in the course of S. mansoni infection.
authors: Laboratory of Cellular Proliferation and Differentiation, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. camilabrandc@gmail.com
authors: Camila
authors: C
authors: Brand
authors: Felipe L
authors: FL
authors: Oliveira
authors: Christina M
authors: CM
authors: Takiya
authors: Antônio
authors: A
authors: Palumbo
authors: Daniel K
authors: DK
authors: Hsu
authors: Fu-Tong
authors: FT
authors: Liu
authors: Radovan
authors: R
authors: Borojevic
authors: Roger
authors: R
authors: Chammas
authors: Márcia C
authors: MC
authors: El-Cheikh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000172:deficiency / Q000502:physiology*; D006099:Granuloma / Q000473:pathology; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D008264:Macrophages / Q000378:metabolism / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D010273:Parasitic Diseases, Animal / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology*; D010950:Plasma Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D012550:Schistosoma mansoni / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D012555:Schistosomiasis mansoni / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology*; D013158:Splenic Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D037502:Galectin 3; C485095:Lgals3 protein, mouse