The attraction of Trypanosoma cruzi to vertebrate cells in vitro

A video technic is described that permits a quantification of the degree of attraction of Trypanosoma cruzi trypomastigotes to vertebrate cells in vitro. Bovine embryo skeletal muscle cells (BESM), HeLa cells and Vero cells all attract a myotropic strain of T. cruzi trypomastigotes. BESM cells, however, are 2-fold more attractive to trypomastigotes than HeLa cells and 10-fold more attractive than Vero cells. Heat-inactivation of BESM cells abolishes their ability to respire and also to attract T. cruzi trypomastigotes. As there is no difference in the endogenous oxygen consumption between BESM, HeLa, and Vero cells, it is unlikely that differences in the attraction of trypomastigotes to the 3 cell types are due to variations in the magnitude of pO2 or pCO2 gradients in the milieu around the cells.