Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T12:31:47.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The longevity of Hymeonlepis microstoma in mice, and its immunological cross-reaction with Hymenolepis diminuta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

C. A. Hopkins ,
R. I. Goodall  and
A. Zajac
C. A. Hopkins
Affiliation:
Wellcome Laboratories for Experimental Parasitology, University of Glasgow, Bearsden Road, Bearsden, Glasgow, G61 1QH
R. I. Goodall
Affiliation:
Wellcome Laboratories for Experimental Parasitology, University of Glasgow, Bearsden Road, Bearsden, Glasgow, G61 1QH
A. Zajac
Affiliation:
Wellcome Laboratories for Experimental Parasitology, University of Glasgow, Bearsden Road, Bearsden, Glasgow, G61 1QH
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Hymenolepis microstoma was found to live for at least 728 days in a mouse, but an initial infection of 10 worms per mosue decreased exponentially for approximately the first 110 days to a level of 3–5 worms, after which little further loss occurred.

A primary infection of six H. microstoma, expelled with anthelmintic on day 21, strongly protected against a single worm H. diminuta challenge; worms in 80 ‘immunized’ mice weighed less than 5% of the weight of worms from 80 control mice. However, a primary (5-worm) H. diminuta infection led only to a small, though statistically significant, decrease in weight of the 3-worm H. microstoma challenge.

The results are interpreted as indicating that H. microstoma evokes a strong immunological response which cross-reacts with H. diminuta. The failure of H. diminutato protect strongly against a 3-worm challenge by H. microstoma suggests, as does the long survival of a primary infection when it is reduced to approximately 4 worms, that H. microstoma survives in low infection because it is able to avoid the immune response. This could be due to antigen camounflage, ability to repair immune damage or to the low permeability of the bile duct wall to components of the immune response. The worm loss which occurs from heavy infection until only 3–5 worms remain may be physiologically rather than immunologiacally mediated.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 74 , Issue 2 , April 1977 , pp. 175 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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

Befus, A. D. (1974). The immunoglobulin coat on Hymenolepis spp. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 68, 273.Google Scholar
Befus, A. D. (1975 a). Secondary infections of Hymenolepis diminuta in mice: effects of varying worm burdens in primary and secondary infections. Parasitology 71, 61–75.Google Scholar
Befus, A. D. (1975 b). Intestianl immune responses of mice to the tapeworms Hymenolepis diminuta and H. microstoma. Ph.D. thesis, University of Glasgow.Google Scholar
Crompton, D. W. T. (1973). The sites occupied by some parasitic helminths in the alimentary tract of vertebrates. Biological Reviews 48, 27–83.Google Scholar
Foster, W. B. & Hanson, W. L. (1965). Antibodies in mice infected with Hymenolepis microstoma against freshly excysted cysticercoids as demonstrated by the fluorescent antibody technique. Journal of Parasitology 51, Supp1. p. 62.Google Scholar
Goodall, R. I. (1973). Studies on the growth, location specificity and immunobiology of some Hymenolepid tapeworms. Ph.D. thesis, University of Glasgow.Google Scholar
Hopkins, C. A. (1970). Location-specificity in adult tapeworms with special reference to Hymenolepis diminuta. Second International Congress of Parasitology. Journal of Parasitology 56, 561–4.Google Scholar
Hopkins, C. A., Grant, P. M. & Stallard, H. (1973). The effect of oxyclozanide on Hymenolepis microstoma and H. diminuta. Parasitology 66, 355–65.Google Scholar
Hopkins, C. A. & Stallard, H. E. (1974). Immunity to intestinal tapeworms: the rejection of Hymenolepis citelli by mice. Parasitology 69, 63–76.Google Scholar
Hopkins, C. A., Subramanian, G. & Stallard, H. (1972a). The development of Hymenolepis diminuta in primary and secondary infections in mice. Parasitology 64, 401–12.Google Scholar
Hopkins, C. A., Sunramanian, G. & Stallard, H. (1972b). The effect of immunosuppressants on the development of Hymenolepis diminuta in mice. Parasitology 65, 111–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Howard, R. J. (1976). The growth of secondary infections of Hymenolwpis microstoma in mice: the effect of various primary infection regimes. Parasitology 72, 317–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Litohford, R. G. (1963). Observations on Hymenolepis microstoma in three laboratory hosts: Mesocricetus auratus, Mus musculus and Rattus norvegicus. Journal of Parasitology 49, 403–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lumsden, R. D. & Karin, D. S. (1970). Electron microscopy of the peribiliary connective tissues in mice infected with the tapeworm Hymenolepis microstoma. Journal of Parasitology 56, 1171–83.Google Scholar
Moss, G. D. (1971). The nature of the immune response of the mouse to the bile duct cestode, Hymenolepis microstoma. Parasitlogy 62, 285–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogilvie, B. M. & Wilson, R. J. M. (1976). Evasion of the immune response by parasites. British Medical Bulletin 32, 177–81.Google Scholar
Pappas, P. W. (1976). Host–parasite relationship of Hymenolepis microstoma and the mouse host: biochemical analyses of organs from infected mice.Program and Abstracts 51 st Annual Meeting of The American Society of Parasitologists, p. 53.Google Scholar
Smithers, S. R. & Terry, R. J. (1976). The immunology of schistonsomiasis. In Advances in Parasitology, Vol. 14 (ed. Dawes, B.), pp. 399–422. London and New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Tan, B. D. & Jones, A. W. (1968). Resistance of mice to reinfection with the bile-duct cestode, Hymenolepis microstoma. Experimental Parasitology 22, 250–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trimble, J. J. & Lumsden, R. D. (1972). Effect of the immunosuppressive drug Cyclophosphamide on the peribiliary host tissue response to the tapeworm Hymenolepis microstoma. Program and Abstracts 47th Annual Meeting of the American Socirty of Parasitologists, p. 55.Google Scholar