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Human Amebic Dysentery

Electron Microscopy of Entamoeba histolytica Contacting, Ingesting, and Digesting Inflammatory Cells^*

Biopsy samples from human cases of amebiasis were studied by electron microscopy. Numerous inflammatory cells passed through flattened or damaged epithelium into the colonic lumen. Polymorphonuclear leucocytes, eosinophils, and lymphocytes were eaten and digested by amebae, as in the well-known ingestion of red blood cells. Ingested inflammatory cells have apparently not been recognized because one of the first changes, preceding loss of external membranes in food vacuoles, is loss of nuclear affinity for stain. Inflammatory cell ingestion seems to be characteristic of amebae causing human dysentery. Inflammatory cells do not effectively limit amebic activities and may even contribute to host damage. Cytotoxic materials could be released directly by lysis of uneaten cells or might pass through the amebae and be released (possibly altered) from excretory vacuoles.

Accepted for publication April 15, 1972.

^* This investigation was supported in part by a research contract, Project No. 3A062110A822 from the Medical Research and Development Command, U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.

The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private views of the author and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense.

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