Abstract
While Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, is typically vector-borne, infection can also occur through solid organ transplantation or transfusion of contaminated blood products. The ability of infected human cells, tissues, and cellular and tissue-based products (HCT/Ps) to transmit T. cruzi is dependent upon T. cruzi surviving the processing and storage conditions to which HCT/Ps are subjected. In the studies reported here, T. cruzi trypomastigotes remained infective 24 hours after being spiked into blood and stored at room temperature (N = 20); in 2 of 13 parasite-infected cultures stored 28 days at 4°C; and in samples stored 365 days at −80°C without cryoprotectant (N = 28), despite decreased viability compared to cryopreserved parasites. Detection of viable parasites after multiple freeze/thaws depended upon the duration of frozen storage. The ability of T. cruzi to survive long periods of storage at +4 and −80°C suggests that T. cruzi-infected tissues stored under these conditions are potentially infectious.
Highlights
Trypanosoma cruzi is a parasite that causes human Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis)
Motile parasites were observed in T. cruzi-spiked blood under a light microscope following 24 hours of room temperature storage (Video S1)
T. cruzi-infected cells stored at refrigerated temperature for 24 h and 48 h exhibited no change in cell or parasite viability upon reculture (Figure 3A) but showed a qualitative decrease in viable cells but not parasites when stored 72–120 hours at refrigerated temperatures
Summary
Trypanosoma cruzi is a parasite that causes human Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis). Transmission typically occurs in areas of Latin America where substandard housing provides a habitat for the triatomine bug vectors that deposit the parasite in fecal matter during a nighttime blood meal. The parasite exists in both intracellular and extracellular forms. Trypomastigotes transform to amastigotes and replicate [1]. Amastigotes transform back to trypomastigotes after approximately nine rounds of replication over 4–7 days and escape the cell. The released trypomastigotes can be taken up by a triatomine vector during a blood meal or can propagate the infection in vivo by infecting other host cells. The acute phase of infection lasts for 1–2 months, during which the parasite has a broad tissue distribution and parasitemia is patent. Parasites persist primarily, but not exclusively, in muscle tissue, and the predominant clinical pathology is cardiomyopathy. Infection of the host is life-long, parasites are rarely seen in the blood during chronic infection, and even sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays only detect parasites in the blood of up to 66% of chronically-infected individuals [2]
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