Morphometric characteristics of the metacestode Echinococcus vogeli Rausch & Bernstein, 1972 in human infections from the northern region of Brazil

Abstract

Polycystic echinococcosis, caused by the larval stage (metacestode) of the small-sized tapeworm, Echinococcus vogeli, is an emerging parasitic zoonosis of great public health concern in the humid tropical rainforests of South and Central America. Because morphological and morphometric characteristics of the metacestode are not well known, hydatid cysts from the liver and the mesentery were examined from patients following surgical procedures. Whole mounts of protoscoleces with rostellar hooks were examined under light and confocal laser scanning microscopy. Measurements were made of both large and small hooks, including the total area, total length, total width, blade area, blade length, blade width, handle area, handle length and handle width. The results confirmed the 1:1 arrangement of hooks in the rostellar pad and indicated, for the first time, that the morphometry of large and small rostellar hooks varies depending upon the site of infection. Light and confocal microscopy images displayed clusters of calcareous corpuscles in the protoscoleces. In conclusion, morphological features of large and small rostellar hooks of E. vogeli are adapted to a varied environment within the vertebrate host and such morphological changes in calcareous corpuscles occur at different stages in the maturation of metacestodes.

Morphological and morphometric study of Echinococcus granulosus (metacestode) in Sulaimani Province/ Kurdistan Region, Iraq

“…A procedure described by Almeida et al, (2015) was followed for hook mesuerment using a microscope (Olympus, UK) supported with a camera and morphometric software (Micam).…”

Eurytrema coelomaticum: updated morphology of adult worms using advanced microscopy experiments

“…The ultrastructural organization of E. coelomaticum cercariae, mother and daughter sporocysts (Franco-Acuña et al ., 2011; Pinheiro et al ., 2011, 2012), and eggs (Pinheiro et al ., 2015) has been investigated using scanning and transmission electron microscopies. Other works have already used advanced microscopy experiments for investigating nematodes (Adnet et al ., 2013; Lopes-Torres et al ., 2015), cestodes (Almeida et al ., 2015) and some trematode species (Machado-Silva et al ., 1998; Souza et al ., 2011, 2017; Gonçalves et al ., 2016; Marques et al ., 2017). Despite the excellent resolution to characterize the surface structures in detail, conventional scanning electron microscopies (SEMs) limit the observation to the external surfaces, missing information about the internal ones.…”

Public Health Concerns of Taenidae and Their Metacestodes

“…The disease if remains untreated, can lead to the death of the patient due to unlimited proliferation and metastasis of the lesions [23]. Polycystic echinococcosis caused by the metacestodes of E. vogeli and E. oligarthus is regarded as an emerging parasitic zoonotic disease with public health concern in the humid tropical rainforests [24]. The intermediate hosts for E. oligarthus include wild rodents with the development of cysts in the muscles, subcutaneous tissues or lungs, liver and spleen.…”