LPG

Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan parasite that causes Chagas' disease in humans, has a complex life cycle alternating between the insect vector and the mammalian host. In the vector, it multiplies as noninfective epimastigotes that migrate to the hindgut and differentiate into infective metacyclic trypomastigotes. A lipophosphoglycan (LPG)-like glycoconjugate is expressed on the cell surface of Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes. It migrates as a homogeneous band (42 kDa). T. cruzi LPG has large amounts of glucosamine and sialic acid as well as galactosamine and is anchored on the cell surface via an alkylacylphosphatidylinositol.