Post lung-stage schistosomula of Schistosoma mansoni exhibit transient susceptibility to macrophage-mediated cytotoxicity in vitro that may relate to late phase killing in vivo.

Studies of protective immunity against Schistosoma mansoni in immunized mice suggest that a proportion of challenge parasites may be eliminated after they have passed through the lungs of the host several days after infection; however, no potential immune effector mechanism of resistance against this stage of the parasite has yet been identified, since schistosomes have been shown to rapidly become resistant to antibody-dependent killing mechanisms. In this study, different development stages of S. mansoni were examined for their susceptibility to in vitro cytotoxicity by lymphokine-activated macrophages. As previously shown, newly transformed larvae were readily killed by lymphokine-treated peritoneal macrophages or the macrophage cell line IC-21 (80% mortality over 48 h in vitro), whereas 7 and 10 day old lung-stage parasites had become refractory to macrophage effects. However, after 2 to 2 1/2 weeks of development in vivo, juvenile parasites recovered from the liver were again susceptible to activated macrophage-mediated cytotoxicity (25-65% mortality). Ultrastructural studies of 2 1/2 week old parasites co-cultured with activated IC-21 cells revealed that damage was largely restricted to the areas beneath the parasite surface and gut syncitia; surface membrane disruption was not evident. This late stage of susceptibility was transient and by 4 to 6 weeks liver-stage worms had again become refractory to macrophage killing. The interaction of post lung-stage parasites with activated macrophages was antibody independent. Furthermore, schistosomes isolated from the portal circulation 2 1/2 weeks after infection showed no evidence of surface-bound immunoglobulin in a quantitative immunofluorescence assay, nor did antisera from chronically infected mice (CIS) or mice vaccinated with irradiated cercariae (VS) react with the surface of these parasites in vitro, making the possibility of direct antibody-dependent killing mechanisms unlikely. However, both CIS and VS did recognize excretory/secretory proteins synthesized by 2 1/2 week old liver-stage schistosomes, including a major antigen of approximate Mr (X 10(-3] 220 (220K). It is therefore possible that such antigens might participate in protective immunity, for example via immune complex formation or activation of sensitized T cells. These observations support the role of macrophages as immune effector cells in mice immunized against Schistosoma mansoni, and provide the first physiologically relevant mechanism whereby the immune system might recognize and kill post-lung stage schistosomes.