Alterations of Rat Liver Lysosomes after Treatment with Particulate ß 1–3 Glucan from Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

Abstract

The possible interactions between lysosomes and the activinimmunoamplifier glucan from yeast are numerous: a) glucan treatment might influence some properties of the lysosomes present in a given organ (e.g., the liver), either through alteration of preexisting lysosomes, through changing the cellular composition of the organ provided that the lysosomes be different in the various cell populations at stake, or by a combination of these two phenomena; b) if glucan particles reach the lysosomes proper and if their slow in vivo degradation (7) occurs there, lysosomal effectors would alter glucan molecules; this probable phenomenon is of such great importance that a hypothesis considering glucan as a rather inert drug-precursor requiring chemical activation within lysosomes has already been formulated on the basis of some indirect experimental evidence (7); c) oxidative enzymes associated with lysosomes or related structures (e.g., the plasma membrane) of all cell types (e.g., mono- or “poly”-nucleated phagocytes, lymphocytes) involved in the cellular part of both nonspecific and specific immunity are thought to play a determinant role in the major and ultimate host-defense act, which is the killing of intracellular (infectious) or extracellular (tumor cells, parasitic worms…) parasites (Fig. 1). In addition, hydrolytic enzymes in lysosomes would intervene in a latter stage, in the biodegradation of the intravacuolar bodies (and antigens) of killed parasites. Thus, lysosomes of white inflammatory cells appear as the major executive agents operating at the last step of the chain of events accelerated by glucan and other immunoadjuvants, e.g., killing of parasites and disposal of their remnants.