Caracterizaçäo de cepas do Trypanosoma cruzi isoladas de doentes nos quais foi realizado transplante de coraçäo / Characterization of Trypanosoma cruzi strains isolated from heart transplanted patients

Three strains of Trypanosoma cruzi were isolated from Chagas' disease patients transplanted for heart failure, after cardiac transplantation, and were studied in an experimental model of Chagas' disease, in mice, with evaluation of parasitic load, mortality and extension of inflammatory infiltrates in the heart. These parameters were compared with the standard strain Y. The strains had differences in the studied parameters, but there was no clear relationship between those and post-transplant evolution of the patients. Probably the clinical response is multifactorial and derives only in part from biological characteristics of the infecting T. cruzi strain, as measured in our model.