Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T13:47:54.797Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The distribution of a primary infestation of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis in the small intestine of laboratory rats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

M. R. Brambell
Affiliation:
Parasitology Department, Moredun Institute, Edinburgh

Extract

The small intestine of rats was divided into twenty sections in a reproducible manner in order to study the distribution of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis by stretching it under a tension of 5g in adrenaline saline.

A small but significant difference between the distribution of parasites in male and female rats was observed.

As larvae had virtually ceased to reach the intestine by the fifth day all changes in distribution after that day were due to movements of the established adult population.

Up to the twelfth day of a primary infestation the majority of the worms were found between the third and tenth sections, the population mode being in the fifth or sixth section. After the thirteenth day the number of worms in this region fell sharply.

The female worms had not ceased from egg-laying by the time most of the worms were being rejected.

The posterior half of the small intestine, i.e. the eleventh to twentieth sections, was not heavily parasitized, many of the worms seen being in passage to the anus.

The first section was not parasitized until the seventh day, but thereafter remained parasitized until long after worms had disappeared from the more posterior sections.

The relative number of male worms present increased as the infestation aged.

Throughout the experiment the relative number of male worms present at the anterior end of the smaller intestine was higher than that at the posterior.

Fourth-stage larvae were found chiefly in the sections that were later most heavily parasitized by adult worms.

Type
Research Article
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

Africa, C. M. (1931). Studies on the host relations of Nippostrongylus muris with special reference to age resistance and acquired immunity. J. Parasit. 18, 113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barakat, M. R. (1951). A new procedure for the cultivation of the nematode parasites. J. Roy. Egypt Med. Ass. 34, 323–6.Google ScholarPubMed
Chandler, A. C. (1935). Studies on the nature of immunity to intestinal helminths. II. A study of the correlation between the degree of resistance of white rats to Nippostrongylus and the interval between infections. Am. J. Hyg. 22, 243–56.Google Scholar
Chandler, A. C. (1936). Studies on the nature of immunity to intestinal helminths. III. Renewal of growth and egg-production in Nippostrongylus after transfer from immune to non-immune rats. Am. J. Hyg. 23, 4654.Google Scholar
Haley, A. J. (1961). Biology of the rat nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis (Travassos, 1914). I. Systematics, Hosts and Geographic Distribution. J. Parasit. 47, 727–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porter, D. A. (1935). Studies on the pathology of Nippostrongylus muris in rats and mice. J. Parasit. 21, 226–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarles, M. P. (1938). The in vitro action of immune rat serum on the nematode Nippostrongylus muris. J. infect. Dis. 62, 337–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarles, M. P. (1939). Protective and curative action of immune serum against Nippostrongylus muris in the rat. J. infect. Dis. 65, 337–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarles, M. P. & Taliaferro, W. H. (1936). The local points of defence and the passive transfer of acquired immunity to Nippostrongylus muris in rats. J. infect. Dis. 59, 207–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Symons, L. E. A. & Fairbairn, D. (1963). Biochemical pathology of the rat jejunum parasitized by the nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. Expl Parasit. 13, 284304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taliaferro, W. H. & Sarles, M. P. (1939). The cellular reactions in the skin, lungs and intestine of normal and hyperimmune rats after infection with Nippostrongylus muris. J. infect. Dis. 64, 157–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taliaferro, W. H. & Sarles, M. P. (1942). The histopathology of the skin, lungs and intestine of rats during passive immunity to Nippostrongylus muris. J. infect. Dis. 71, 6982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Travassos, L. (1914). Trichostrongyloides brazileiros (3 nota previa). Braz.-med. 28, 325–7.Google Scholar
Yokogawa, A. (1920). A new nematode from the rat. J. Parasit. 7, 2933.CrossRefGoogle Scholar