During the miltiary operations in the Pacific Theatre members of the Armed Forces not infrequently were exposed to filariasis. This circumstance resulted in the initiation of a series of investigations of the chemotherapy of this disease (1-7). For a better understanding of the mechanism of action of available, and for the potential development of new, antifilarial drugs it was considered desirable to obtain information about the metabolism of filariae. Since the h u m a n forms of the filarial worm, Wuchereria bancrofli and Wucherict malayi as yet cannot be obtained for biochemical investigations, it was decided to study the metabolism of a morphologically closely related filarial worm, Litomosoides carinii (2). This organism is a common inhabitant of the pleural cavity of the wild cotton rat.
MethodsThe organisms were removed from the pleural cavity of infested cotton rats and were placed in a salt medium. The medium used in the experiments described below, and referred to as a "basic filarial medium," had the following composition: 0.137 • NaC1; 0.0027 ~ KC1; 0.0003 M CaCI~; 0.001 ~ MgC12; 0.06 ~ sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.6). After repeated washings with this medium, the filariae were blotted with No. 50 Whatman filter paper, weighed on a torsion balance, and transferred to Warburg respirometer vessels. Unless otherwise stated, 15 to 25 nag. of worms were placed into 0.8 ml. of medium in each vessel; the total volume of the vessels varied between 4 and 5 ml. The center cup contained a roll of filter paper moistened with 0