Anisakiasis is an infectious parasitic disease contracted by eating third stage larvae of Anisakis simplex (L3) carried by marine fishes. Human anisakiasis was researched for specific IgG with L3 excretory secretory products (ESP). L3ESP were prepared by daily harvesting of culture supernatant from day 2 to day 5, using two kinds culture media of RPMI-1640 and phosphate buffered saline (PBS). When the sera from persons diagnosed with anisakiasis by means of endoscopy were analyzed using indirect ELISA and Western blot, the sera was classified into four groups depending on specific antigen recognition patterns. In addition, the presence of a new antigen for L3, located at less than 13 kDa (AgLT13) was demonstrated in L3ESP with a modified Western blot condition. The production of AgLT13 was mainly found in L3ESP harvested both on day 2 and day 3, and that in PBS was predominant over that in RPMI-1640. Among those sera, the high reactive sera to L3ESP-day two prepared with phosphate buffer in indirect ELISA recognized AgLT13, and 33% of the low reactive sera did so. These results indicate that the binding pattern of human L3 specific antibody is diverse depending on L3ESP preparations and that AgLT13 demonstrated with a Western blot condition is a specific antigen for L3.

A case of subcutaneous and intramuscular sparganosis was confirmed on surgical excision of a worm in a 60-year-old woman suffering from painful masses in the right thigh. Sonography and MRI revealed an ill-defined intramuscular lesion and multiple cystic lesions in the subcutaneous tissue. At the time of the excision, a sparganum larva was found in the adductor longus muscle. If an intramuscular mass with a serpiginous cystic tract is seen on imaging studies in an endemic area, musculoskeletal sparganosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of a soft tissue tumor.

A 46-year old man visited our outpatient clinic with complaint of foreign body sensation in throat after consuming raw freshwater fish 5 days ago. Laryngoscopic examination revealed a motile worm attached on posterior pharyngeal wall. The worm was removed using biopsy forceps under transnasal endoscopy and evidently identified as Clinostomum complanatum after microscopic examination. Patient’s subjective foreign body sensation of throat and hyperemia of laryngeal mucosa remained for approximately 2 weeks post-removal, which were eventually resolved after administration of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and anti-refluxant drug for 2 weeks. Treatment was ended at three weeks since the first visit. C. complanatum infections in humans are rare, and only four cases have been reported in Korea. Symptoms resembling pharyngitis or laryngitis occurs by consumption of raw, infected freshwater fish and treatment is done by mechanically removing the parasite.

Abstract:The third-stage larvae (L3) of the parasitic nematode, Anisakis simplex, have been implicated in the induction of hyperimmune allergic reactions in orally infected humans. In this work, we have conducted a review of an investigation into immune reactions occurring in animals experimentally infected with A. simplex L3. The patterns of serum antibody productions in the experimental animals against excretory-secretory products (ESP) of A. simplex L3 contributed to our current knowledge regarding specific humoral immune reactions in humans. In our review, we were able to determine that L3 infection of experimental animals may constitute a good model system for further exploration of immune mechanisms and allergy in anisakiasis of humans. worldwide (Mattiucci et al., 1997;Shih, 2004;Ugland et al., 2004). Many epidemics have been reported in Japan and Spain (Chai et al., 2005). Increasing reports of L3 infection in fish have been documented in South Korea, in which the consumption of raw marine fish is also popular (Chai et al., 1992;Im et al., 1995;Song et al., 1995Song et al., , 1999. Easy access to endoscopes and enhanced awareness of anisakiasis among clinicians has resulted in better reporting of morbidity resultant from L3 infection. L3 infection induces the production of specific antibodies and cytokines (Kennedy et al., 1988;Daschner et al., 2001;Nieuwenhuizen et al., 2006). Antibodies can be detected 2 weeks after infection, consistent with the time courses associated with other microorganisms. Analyses of specific antibody levels are generally irrelevant to the differential diagnosis of an acute state in cases of L3 infection, because the profound pain associated with L3 penetration begins only a few hours after the consumption of infected raw fish. However, antibody level measurements are helpful both in the differentiation of tumors from the granulomas formed by infiltrating L3 and in investigations of allergic diseases (Gutierrez and Cuellar, 2002;Kim et al., 2006).The production of IgE tends to increase during parasite infections, but the ultimate effects of IgE vary considerably, depending on the host-parasite relationships. Hyperimmune allergic reactions have been closely associated with IgE production. The infection of a parasite into its normal host tends to reduce the development of allergic responses, despite the associated upshift in IgE production (van den Biggelaar et al., 2000;Yazdanbakhsh et al., 2002). By contrast, the infection of T. canis in humans, an abnormal host, induces increased allergic reactions (Sharp and Olson, 1962;Sharghi et al., 2001). A. simplex L3 has also been shown to induce allergic diseases at a high rate, principally due to the fact that humans are not a regular host of this parasite (Audicana et al., 2002;Klimpel et al., 2004).Through investigations of allergic responses to L3 for a period of more than 10 years, several shared features have been identified, which indicate that immune reactions to L3 infection evidence similar patterns in humans and experimental...