ACTIVATION OF PHAGOCYTICS CELLS BY JACALIN

LOYOLA W.(1), CONCHON-COSTA I.(2), FREITAS J. A.(2), VITOR A. C. A.(2), CUSTODIO L. A.(2), DEVITO E.(2), GAZIRI L. C. J.(3),  FELIPE I.(2)

(1)Departamento de Patologia Geral, FFALM-UNESP-AR; (2)Departamento de Ciências Patológicas, UEL; (3)Departamento de Ciências Fisiológicas, UEL, Londrina, PR, Brazil.

Candidiasis is being recognized with increasing frequency in immunocompromised or severely debilitated individuals. The participation of macrophages and neutrophils has been demonstrated as essential for defence against this fungus. In previous works we observed that jacalin (JCA) extracted from Jaca seeds (Artocarpus integrifolia) increased the clearance of Candida albicans inoculated by i.p. route in mice. In this work we evaluated the peritoneal phagocytic cells and their phagocytic and candidacidal activities between 6h and 120 hs after administration of JCA. The mice received 500mg of JCA or PBS for 6, 24, 48, 72, 96 e 120 h and euthanized with ether. The phagocytic cells were obtained by washing the peritoneal cavity with 3ml RPMI-albumin and adhered on coverslips for 1h at 37ºC. C. albicans CR15 was added 5:1 phagocyte and incubated at 37ºC for 2 h. Half of samples were stained with May Grunwald Giemsa for analysis of phagocytosis and in half of samples, the phagocytes were lysed with sterile water and C. albicans plated in Sabouraud agar for determination of candidacidal activity. There was predominance of neutrophils after 6h of administration of JCA and as expected the candidacidal activity was higher than that obtained by administration of PBS (reduction of inoculum 59,6% for JCA versus 40,3% PBS).The maximum of candidacidal activity was observed after 72h administration of JCA  when macrophages reduced 76% of inoculum while the non-stimulated reduced only 40%. In the same conditions 70% of macrophages were able to ingest mean number of 5  yeasts. In contrast, only 20% of the non-stimulated macrophages ingest mean number of 3 yeasts. These results suggest that JCA stimulated cytokines production (IFN-g, TNF-a) which stimulated the functions of phagocytic cells.

KEY WORDS: Jacalin, phagocytes, Candida albicans

FINANCIAL SUPPORT: Fundação Araucária, CNPq, CAPES

CORRESPONDENCE TO:

Wagner Loyola, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Ciências Patológicas, PR 445 Campus Universitário Londrina – PR. Email: wloybr@yahoo.com.br