Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T23:23:56.140Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Studies on Schistocephalus solidus

3. The in vitro cultivation of the plerocercoid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Morag L. O. McCaig  and
C. Adrian Hopkins
Morag L. O. McCaig
Affiliation:
Wellcome Laboratories for Experimental Parasitology, The University, Glasgow
C. Adrian Hopkins
Affiliation:
Wellcome Laboratories for Experimental Parasitology, The University, Glasgow
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Schistocephalus plerocercoids in the weight range 2–200mg F.W. recovered from the perivisceral cavity of Gasterosteus aculeatus were cultured in various media. In a medium composed of 25% horse serum, 0·5% yeast extract, 0·65% glucose and Hanks's saline at pH 7·1, 21°C, 95% air +5% CO2, dry weight increases of up to 500% were recorded in 8 days. The specific growth rate of large plerocercoids was only one-tenth of the rate observed in small plerocercoids. A plerocercoid of double the weight of another had approximately half the specific growth rate.

Worms after 8 days cultivation were found to have only slightly higher than normal glycogen and water content, and to be able to mature when heated to 40°C. However, the rate of growth slowed to zero by the 24th day in culture at 21°C. Electron microscopic examination showed a ‘deposit’ formed over the microvilli, thin at 8 days but dense after 21 days.

The in vivo glycogen and water content of plerocercoids from 3–300 mg F.W. was determined. Glycogen rose from 24% in plerocercoids of 10mg F. W. to 50–55% in plerocercoids over 80mg F. W. The water content was found to mimic precisely this change, falling from 82% to a plateau of 67–69%.

We wish to thank Professor Gareth Owen for permission to use the photograph shown in the Plate and for his help while using the electron microscope. It is also a pleasure to thank Miss Patricia Grant for her technical assistance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , May 1965 , pp. 257 - 268
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1965

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berntzen, A. K. (1962). In vitro cultivation of tapeworms. II. Growth and maintenance of Hymenolepis nana (Cestoda: Cyclophyllidea). J. Parasit. 48, 785–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clarke, A. S. (1954). Studies on the life cycle of the pseudophyllidean cestode Schistocephalus solidus. Proc. zool. Soc. Lond. 124, 257–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douglas, L. T. (1961). The development of organ systems in nematotaeniid cestodes. I. Early histogenesis and formation of reproductive structures in Baerietta diana (Helfer, 1948). J. Parasit. 47, 669–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dubinina, M. N. (1959). The natural classification of the genus Schistocephalus Creplin (Cestoda, Ligulidae). Zool. Zh. 38, 1498–1517 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Hopkins, C. A. (1950). Studies on cestode metabolism. 1. Glycogen metabolism in Schistocephalus solidus in vivo. J. Parasit. 36, 384–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, C. A. (1952). Studies on cestode metabolism. 2. The utilization of glycogen by Schistocephalus solidus in vitro. Expl Parasit. 1, 196–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, C. A. (1960). Studies on cestode metabolism. VI. Analytical procedures and their application to Hydatigera taeniaeformis. Expl Parasit. 9, 159–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hopkins, C. A. & Hutchison, W. M. (1958). Studies on cestode metabolism. IV. The nitrogen fraction in the large cat tapeworm, Hydatigera (Taenia) taeniaeformis. Expl Parasit. 7, 349–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hopkins, C. A. & Hutchison, W. M. (1960). Studies on Hydatigera taeniaeformis. III. The water content of larval and adult worms. Expl Parasit. 9, 257–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, C. A. & McCaig, M. L. O. (1963). Studies on Schistocephalus solidus. 1. The correlation of development in the plerocercoid with infectivity to the definitive host. Expl Parasit. 13, 235–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medawar, P. B. (1945). Size, shape and age. In Essays on Growth and Form, p. 157–187. Ed. Le Gros Clark, W. E. & Medawar, P. B., Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Paul, J. (1959). Cell and Tissue Culture. Edinburgh and London: Livingstone Ltd.Google Scholar
Reid, W. M. (1942). Certain nutritional requirements of the fowl cestode Raillietina cesticillus (Molin) as demonstratd by short periods of starvation of the host. J. Parasit. 28, 319–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, L. S. (1961). The influence of population density on patterns and physiology of growth in Hymenolepis diminuta (Cestoda, Cyclophyllidea) in the definitive host. Expl Parasit. 11, 332–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rothman, Alvin H. (1963). Electron microscopic studies of tapeworms: the surface structures of Hymenolepis diminuta (Rudolphi, 1819) Blanchard 1891. Trans. Amer. micr. Soc. 82, 23–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smyth, J. D. (1946). Studies on tapeworm physiology. 1. The cultivation of Schistocephalus solidus in vitro. J. exp. Biol. 23, 47–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smyth, J. D. (1956). Studies on tapeworm physiology. IX. A histochemical study of eggshell formation in Schistocephalus solidus (Pseudophyllidea). Expl Parasit. 5, 519–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smyth, J. D. (1959). Maturation of larval pseudophyllidean cestodes and strigeid trematodes under axenic conditions; the significance of nutritional levels in platyhelminth development. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 77, 102–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Threadgold, L. T. (1962). An electron microscope study of the tegument and asociated structures of Dipylidium caninum. Quart. J. micr. Sci. 103, 135–40.Google Scholar
Trevelyan, W. E. & Harrison, J. S. (1952). Studies on yeast metabolism. 1. Fractionation and microdetermination of cell carbohydrates. Biochem. J. 50, 298–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walkey, M. & Davies, P. S. (1964). Respiratory studies on Schistocephalus solidus. 1. Effect of temperature and worm size. Parasitology, 54, 6p.Google Scholar
Wyllie, M. R., Williams, M. O. & Hopkins, C. A. (1960). The in vitro cultivation of strigeid trematodes. 2. Replacement of a yolk medium. Expl Parasit. 10, 51–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar