SEQUESTRATION AND PHAGOCYTOSIS OF HAEMOBARTONELLA-FELIS IN THE SPLEEN

  • 1 January 1979
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 40  (5) , 691-695
Abstract
Spleens of 2 cats infected with H. felis were examined by EM to determine the means by which the organism was sequestered in this organ. The principal means of sequestration occurred when H. felis, located on the erythrocytes, was removed by phagocytosis by a cordal macrophage, apparently preceded by the adhesion of extended processes of the macrophage to H. felis. The 2nd and least frequent means of removal of H. felis was by pitting, a process that did not cause destruction of the host erythrocyte. The H. felis was pitted from the parasitized erythrocyte when H. felis passed through gaps between reticular cells or when the parasitized erythrocyte passed among the cytoplasmic processes of the reticular cells in the splenic cords. Some H. felis were closely associated with the plasmalemma of cordal reticular cells and were located in intracytoplasmic vacuoles of the cells without being influenced by the phagocytic process.