Electron microscope investigations on leishmaniasis in the Sudan: II

An electron microscope study was made to compare the details of ultrastructural morphology of parasite-macrophage interaction in Sudanese human mucosal leishmaniasis and hamster visceral leishmaniasis produced by Leishmania amastigotes obtained from human mucosal lesions.There were some differences between human and animal infections. In parasitized human macrophages there were a few. little or no parasitophorous vacuoles, no membranous cytoplasmic degeneration and no dividing amastigotes but ultrastructural signs of enhanced secretory activity. By contrast, in hamster splenic macrophages many large parasitophorous vacuoles developed around the parasites, occasionally dividing amastigotes were seen and there was marked membranous degeneration of macrophages without signs of enhanced secretory activity.These observations suggest certain difference in macrophage-parasite interaction between in vivo and in vitro conditions, as well as between human and animal infections.