Figure 3. Parasitophorous Vacuoles of recently internalized trypomastigotes are enriched in ceramide.
(A) Confocal image of an infected HeLa cell (15 min of infection) incubated with anti-ceramide (red) and anti-Lamp1 (green) antibodies. A protruding trypomastigote outlined with ceramide patches is seen on the left, while Lamp-1 enriched lysosomes – the source of acid sphingomyelinase - are observed closely associated with the parasitophorous vacuole (arrows). The DAPI-stained parasite kinetoplast (arrowhead) and the host cell and parasite nuclei are shown in blue. (B) 3D reconstruction of (A) highlighting the ceramide-enriched microdomains and the lysosomes.