Lipopeptidophosphoglycan from Trypanosoma cruzi

Lipopeptidophosphoglycan, extracted from whole cells of epimastigote forms of Trypanosoma cruzi, has now been shown to contain 12.6% of fatty acids in addition to the previously identified content of neutral sugars (60%), glucosamine (0.8%), peptide (9.5%) and acid-hydrolyzable phosphate (2%). The main fatty acids are palmitic (6.9%) and lignoceric (4.6%) acids. Stearic (0.55%), oleic (0.15%) and myristic (0.18%) acids were also found. One third of the fatty acids are bound in the lipopeptidophosphoglycan as esters (14 mmol%) and two thirds as amides (28 mmol%). Lignoceric acid was found to be bound only as amide. Two ninhydrin-positive compounds, obtained by chloroform extraction of a total acid hydrolysate of the lipopeptidophosphoglycan, were tentatively identified as sphingosine bases.