Lectins/carbohydrate binding can be involved in the
Schistosoma mansoni
recognition and activation of the
Biomphalaria hemocytes. Therefore, expression of lectin ligands on
Biomphalaria hemocytes would be associated with snail resistance against
S. mansoni infection. To test this hypothesis, circulating hemocytes were isolated from
B. glabrata BH (snail strain highy susceptible to
S. mansoni ),
B. tenagophila Cabo Frio (moderate susceptibility), and
B. tenagophila Taim (completely resistant strains), labelled with FITC conjugated lectins (ConA, PNA, SBA, and WGA) and analyzed under fluorescence microscopy. The results demonstrated that although lectin-labelled hemocytes were detected in hemolymph of all snail species tested, circulating hemocytes from both strains of
B. tenagophila showed a larger number of lectin-labelled cells than
B. glabrata . Moreover, most of circulating hemocytes of
B. tenagophila were intensively labelled by lectins PNA-FITC and WGA-FITC, while in
B. glabrata small hemocytes were labeled mainly by ConA. Upon
S. mansoni infection, lectin-labelled hemocytes almost disappeared from the hemolymph of Taim and accumulated in
B. glabrata BH. The role of lectins/carbohydrate binding in resistance of
B. tengophila infection to
S. mansoni is still not fully understood, but the data suggest that there may be a correlation to its presence with susceptibility or resistance to the parasite.
