Adsorption of Trypanosoma cruzi proteins to mammalian cells in vitro.

It has previously been shown using immunological techniques that antigens from Trypanosoma cruzi adsorb to mammalian cells. Here we have used radioactively-labelled T. cruzi antigens to investigate the nature of the antigens bound. We have demonstrated that numerous T. cruzi polypeptides rapidly become adsorbed to mammalian cells in tissue culture. These polypeptides dissociate from the mammalian cells only at a slow rate. We found no indication that the binding of the polypeptides was mediated by the specific binding of any one protein.