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Recent advances in the in vitro cultivation of Cryptosporidium parvum using hollow fiber bioreactor technology (HFB) have permitted continuous growth of parasites that complete all life cycle stages. The method provides access to all stages of the parasite and provides a method for non-animal production of oocysts for use in clinical trials. Here we examined the effect of long-term (>20 months) in vitro culture on virulence-factors, genome conservation, and in vivo pathogenicity of the host by in vitro cultured parasites. We find low-level sequence variation that is consistent with that observed in calf-passaged parasites. Further using a calf model infection, oocysts obtained from the HFB caused diarrhea of the same volume, duration and oocyst shedding intensity as in vivo passaged parasites., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Yarlett et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium sp. is a leading cause of diarrheal disease in those with compromised or underdeveloped immune systems, particularly infants and toddlers in resource-poor localities. As an enteric pathogen, Cryptosporidium sp. invades the apical surface of intestinal epithelial cells, where it resides in close proximity to metabolites in the intestinal lumen. However, the effect of gut metabolites on susceptibility to Cryptosporidium infection remains largely unstudied. Here, we first identified which gut metabolites are prevalent in neonatal mice when they are most susceptible to Cryptosporidium parvum infection and then tested the isolated effects of these metabolites on C. parvum invasion and growth in intestinal epithelial cells. Our findings demonstrate that medium or long-chain saturated fatty acids inhibit C. parvum growth, perhaps by negatively affecting the streamlined metabolism in C. parvum , which is unable to synthesize fatty acids. Conversely, long-chain unsaturated fatty acids enhanced C. parvum invasion, possibly by modulating membrane fluidity. Hence, gut metabolites, either from diet or produced by the microbiota, influence C. parvum growth in vitro and may also contribute to the early susceptibility to cryptosporidiosis seen in young animals. IMPORTANCE Cryptosporidium sp. occupies a unique intracellular niche that exposes the parasite to both host cell contents and the intestinal lumen, including metabolites from the diet and produced by the microbiota. Both dietary and microbial products change over the course of early development and could contribute to the changes seen in susceptibility to cryptosporidiosis in humans and mice. Consistent with this model, we show that the immature gut metabolome influenced the growth of Cryptosporidium parvum in vitro Interestingly, metabolites that significantly altered parasite growth were fatty acids, a class of molecules that Cryptosporidium sp. is unable to synthesize de novo The enhancing effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids and the inhibitory effects of saturated fatty acids presented in this study may provide a framework for future studies into this enteric parasite's interactions with exogenous fatty acids during the initial stages of infection., (Copyright © 2020 VanDussen et al.)

Glucagon inhibits gastric acid secretion and increases the negativity of gastric mucosal potential difference (PD) in man. To test the hypothesis that the increased negativity of PD after glucagon in man could be due to decreased parietal cell canalicular membrane area, a quantitative ultrastructural analysis was carried out. Four healthy volunteers with normal gastric mucosa were submitted to biopsy before and 20 minutes after intravenous injection of 2 mg glucagon (G). This time corresponded with the maximal change in PD and a decrease in gastric acid secretion. Canalicular and tubulovesicular membrane area of 80 parietal cells (40 cells before glucagon and 40 cells after glucagon) were quantified by the Loud morphometric method. After glucagon, the oxyntic cell canalicular membrane area was reduced by one-fourth (P less than 0.05), while tubulovesicular membrane area showed an increase (P less than 0.05) at the same time. The decrease in the area of parietal cell canalicular membrane caused by glucagon may in part be responsible for increased negativity of the gastric PD caused by this hormone.