Host immunoglobulin on spleen-derived Leishmania donovani amastigotes

Leishmania donovani, an intracellular pathogen in vertebrates, is found as an amastigote within cells of reticuloendothelial origin. The spleens of experimentally infected Syrian hamsters are frequently used as a source of amastigotes for studies of host-parasite interactions, but amastigotes isolated from hamster spleens have been found to have surface-bound host immunoglobulins, which may confound interpretation of such studies.