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Maintenance of the Life Cycle of Schistosomiasis

1988; King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre; Volume: 8; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5144/0256-4947.1988.391a

0975-4466

Ezzat Mahboubi, F. Arfaa, Ahmed Selim,

Parasite Biology and Host Interactions

Letters to the EditorMaintenance of the Life Cycle of Schistosomiasis Ezzat Mahboubi, MD Fereydoun Arfaa, and MD Ahmed SelimMD Ezzat Mahboubi Department of Biological and Medical Research, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre P.O. Box 3354 Riyadh 11211, Saudi Arabia Search for more papers by this author , Fereydoun Arfaa Bilharziasis Control Project, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Search for more papers by this author , and Ahmed Selim Department of Biological and Medical Research King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre Search for more papers by this author Published Online:1 Sep 1988https://doi.org/10.5144/0256-4947.1988.391aSectionsPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload citationTrack citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail AboutIntroductionBoth Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium are found with wide distribution mainly in western Saudi Arabia.1,2 To be able to conduct basic and applied research on this important public health problem of the Kingdom and to provide materials for teaching purposes, a schistosomiasis laboratory was established in the Biological and Medical Research Department of King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in 1985. Attempts were made to maintain the life cycle of both species. Biomphalaria arabica, the snail-intermediate host of S. mansoni, and Bulinus beccarri, B. wrighti, and B. truncatus, the hosts of S. haematobium, were collected by one of us (FA) from various parts of Saudi Arabia and transferred to the laboratory. Stool from a Yemeni patient was used to obtain miracidia of S. mansoni, and the snails were exposed to this strain. The Swiss albino mice were used for the completion of the life cycle of S. mansoni, which took an average of 98 days, ranging from 96 to 106 days (40 to 51 days incubation period for snails and 53 days for mice).Maintenance of the life cycle of S. haematobium was more difficult. Bulinus beccarri and B. wrighti were exposed to strains of S. haematobium from Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia. Syrian golden hamsters were used for completion of the life cycle. At this writing (November 1987), S. mansoni is in its fifth generation and S. haematobium (strains from Yemen only) is in its third generation.Miracidia from infected animals are used for infecting snails, and cercariae shed by snails are used for infecting hamsters, mice, and rabbits. These animals will be used for other studies underway in the Research Centre such as an antiparasitic therapy project and the urinary tract schistosomiasis lesions study, in addition to the enzymatic and genetic projects that are planned.All stages of the parasites have also been collected and preserved for further studies and teaching purposes.ARTICLE REFERENCES:1. Alio S. "Epidemiology of schistosomiasis in Saudi Arabia with an emphasis on geographical distribution pattern" . Unpublished report of ARAMCO, 1967. Google Scholar2. Arfaa F. "Studies on schistosomiasis in Saudi Arabia" . Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1976; 25:295–8. Google Scholar Next article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 8, Issue 5September 1988 Metrics History Published online1 September 1988 InformationCopyright © 1988, Annals of Saudi MedicinePDF download