AUTHOR=Carvalho Tecia M., De Souza Wanderley 

TITLE=Active penetration of Trypanosoma cruzi into host cells: historical considerations and current concepts

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=4

YEAR=2013

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2013.00002

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2013.00002

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=<p>In the present short review, we analyze past experiments that addressed the interactions of intracellular pathogenic protozoa (<italic>Trypanosoma cruzi</italic>, <italic>Toxoplasma gondii</italic>, and <italic>Plasmodium</italic>) with host cells and the initial use of the term active penetration to indicate that a protozoan “crossed the host cell membrane, penetrating into the cytoplasm.” However, the subsequent use of transmission electron microscopy showed that, for all of the protozoans and cell types examined, endocytosis, classically defined as involving the formation of a membrane-bound vacuole, took place during the interaction process. As a consequence, the recently penetrated parasites are always within a vacuole, designated the parasitophorous vacuole (PV).</p>