PROTEINASE ACTIVITY AND VIRULENCE OF ENTAMOEBA-HISTOLYTICA ON PASSAGETHROUGH HAMSTER LIVER

This study was undertaken to determine the enzymatic differences in th e process of increasing the degree of virulence in E. histolytica succ essively passaged in hamster liver. Substrate gel electrophoresis was used to compare proteinase banding patterns under reducing conditions from whole cell lysates' of one axenic E. histolytica(strain HM1:IMSS) and five xenic isolates of the same strain of E. histolytica passaged five times through hamster liver. Trophozoites successively passaged iii hamster liver showed in supernatants, major bands in the 56-97 kDa region whereas only the axenic strain produced additional band at 34 KDa. Inoculation of amoebic trophozoites into hamster led to progressi ve increase in proteinase activity of supernatants as well as increase d virulence of amoebae; proteinase activity of amoebae showed an excel lent correlation with their virulence. All the infected animals died w hen activity of proteinase was 0.152 mg of protein.