Transferability of Trypanosoma cruzi from mixed human host infection to Triatoma infestans and from insects to axenic culture.

The etiologic agent of Chagas disease is Trypanosoma cruzi, a protozoan whose life cycle involves obligatory passage through vertebrate and invertebrate hosts in a series of stages. The aim of this study was to explore the transferability of mixed discrete typing units (DTUs) of T. cruzi present in chronic chagasic patients when passed through an invertebrate host during xenodiagnosis (XD) and then when transferred to axenic cultures to obtain T. cruzi isolates. DTUs of T. cruzi present in these two hosts and axenic cultures were identified by kDNA PCR amplification and subsequent hybridization with DTU-specific probes. Mixtures of Tc I, Tc II, Tc V and Tc VI DTUs were detected in blood samples. However as a result of XD and axenic cultures it was possible to identify mostly Tc V. We conclude that the transferability of an isolate of T.cruzi derived from mixed DTUs present in human blood depends upon the starved invertebrate host used for xenodiagnosis.