title: Glutathione and iron at the crossroad of redox metabolism in rats infected by Trypanosoma evansi.
abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in hematological and biochemical parameters of blood during acute Trypanosoma evansi infection in Wistar rats. The end points studied were hematologic parameters, red blood cell fragility, iron content, and glutathione and lipid peroxidation levels. Forty-eight animals were infected with trypomastigotes and distributed into five groups according to the level of parasitemia. Twelve non-inoculated animals were used as control. Parasitemia increased progressively, reaching highest scores at 15 days post-inoculation. At this point, several deleterious effects were observed such as an increase in iron content, in osmotic fragility, and in lipid peroxidation index, while glutathione decreased drastically. These changes were highly correlated to parasitemia (p < 0.0001) and among each other (p ≤ 0.001). Hematological indices (Hb, packed cell volume (PCV), red blood cells (RBC), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration) were also correlated to parasitemia (p ≤ 0.0003) but failed to correlate to the other variables. Along with increase in iron, RBC fragility produced a decrease in RBC, PCV, and Hb, but not in mean corpuscular volume. Decrease in glutathione was negatively correlated to the end products of lipid peroxidation, clearly indicating the establishment of a pro-oxidant condition. The results show that the infection causes hematological impairments, increases iron and osmotic fragility, along with marked oxidative stress in red blood cells of rats inoculated with T. evansi.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Bioquímica de Hemoparasitas e Vetores-LABHEV, Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina, Avenida Luiz de Camões, no. 2090, Bairro Conta Dinheiro, 88520-000, Lages, SC, Brazil.
authors.forename: Valesca
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Anschau
authors.forename: Alcir Luiz
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Dafré
authors.forename: Ana Paula
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Perin
authors.forename: Fabíola
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Iagher
authors.forename: Mayara Vieira
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Tizatto
authors.forename: Luiz Claudio
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Miletti
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001769:Blood / Q000469:parasitology; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005978:Glutathione / Q000097:blood*; D007501:Iron / Q000097:blood*; D015227:Lipid Peroxidation; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D018512:Parasitemia; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D014345:Trypanosoma / Q000254:growth & development*; D014352:Trypanosomiasis / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D007501:Iron; D005978:Glutathione