Stem cell progeny contribute to the schistosome host-parasite interface

Abstract
Article and author information
Metrics

Abstract

Schistosomes infect more than 200 million of the world's poorest people. These parasites live in the vasculature, producing eggs that spur a variety of chronic, potentially life-threatening, pathologies exacerbated by the long lifespan of schistosomes, that can thrive in the host for decades. How schistosomes maintain their longevity in this immunologically hostile environment is unknown. Here we demonstrate that somatic stem cells in Schistosoma mansoni are biased towards generating a population of cells expressing factors associated exclusively with the schistosome host-parasite interface, a structure called the tegument. We show cells expressing these tegumental factors are short-lived and rapidly turned over. We suggest that stem cell-driven renewal of this tegumental lineage represents an important strategy for parasite survival in the context of the host vasculature.

Article and author information

Author details

James J Collins

Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States

For correspondence
JamesJ.Collins@UTSouthwestern.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
George R Wendt

Department of Pharmacology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Harini Iyer

Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Phillip A Newmark

Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: In adherence to the Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, all experiments with and care of vertebrate animals were performed in accordance with protocols approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (protocol approval number 10035) and UT Southwestern Medical Center (protocol approval number APN 2014-0072).

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.