Expression of a repeating phosphorylated disaccharide lipophosphoglycan epitope on the surface of macrophages infected with Leishmania donovani.

Murine peritoneal macrophages were infected with living, virulent Leishmania donovani promastigotes. At intervals after infection, the macrophage surfaces were probed for the expression of lipophosphoglycan (LPG) epitopes by immunofluorescence with anti-LPG monoclonal antibodies. A repeating phosphorylated disaccharide epitope of LPG was detected as early as 5 to 10 min postinfection and was initially localized to the immediate area of internalization of the promastigote into the macrophage. The epitopes were evenly distributed over the entire macrophage surface by 25 min postinfection. Treatments which inhibited macrophage phagolysosomal degradation processes had no effect on epitope expression, whereas reagents that affected macrophage membrane flow and, thus, phagocytosis drastically reduced or abolished expression. Purified LPG or phosphoglycan, the delipidated form of the LPG molecule, was also shown to bind to a variety of different cell types in a temperature-independent manner. Since LPG has been implicated as having an immunoprotective role in leishmaniasis, these results suggest a further mechanism(s) by which Leishmania LPG might be involved in parasite pathogenicity and virulence.