Effects of 5-hydroxytryptamine and histamine on establishment, production, and reproduction by Hymenolepis diminuta in the final and intermediate hosts

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The effects of chronic administration of 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin, 5-HT) and histamine for 15 days, commencing 24 h after infection, on establishment, production, and reproduction by the tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta in the rat intestine have been studied. Chronic treatment with 5-HT at the rate of 10 or 20 mg/rat per 24 h neither affected parasite production (growth) nor caused a significant rejection of the infection by the rat host. The number of eggs shed by the parasite and the number of eggs per gravid proglottid were reduced over the final 24-h period prior to sacrifice of the hosts.Similar treatment with histamine at the higher dose rate resulted in a significant reduction in the size of the infection and a significant increase in average worm weight. The number of eggs per gram of faeces and per proglottid was significantly reduced, as was also the number of cysticercoids that developed in beetles (Tribolium confusum) that had been fed on the gravid proglottids from histamine-treated worms. Results at the lower dose rate were similar, although the changes were smaller. The histamine treatment may have induced an immunological response by the host to the infection similar to that previously reported for this particular host–parasite system at higher levels of infection or in challenge infections.

This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit: