Iron Homeostasis and Trypanosoma brucei Associated Immunopathogenicity Development: A Battle/Quest for Iron

Table 1

Overview of the metabolic changes and differences in energy/iron source used by African trypanosomes during their lifecycle.

	Long slender form	Short stumpy form	Procyclic form
Stage	Proliferative	Quiescent	Proliferative
Surface coat	VSG	VSG	Procyclin (PE/GPEET)
Mitochondrium	Repressed	Repressed/enlarged	Active
Citric acid/respiratory chain enzymes	Absent	Present but not fully active	Present and activated
Energy source	D-Glucose	D-Glucose	L-Proline
Iron source	Tf, Lf, heme, and heme-containing proteins	Tf, Lf, heme, and heme-containing proteins	heme, heme-containing proteins