Host-Parasite Relationships in Echinococcosis

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Abstract
Summary The polarographic method for oxygen was applied to the problem of aerobiasis-anaerobiasis in echinococcosis to show that: 1. The dissolved oxygen content of fluids of 3 hydatid cysts of the bovine lung ranged from 2.80 to 3.12 mm3 per ml, of 7 hydatid cysts of the bovine liver from 1.28 to 2.28 mm3 per ml. 2. The Q O2 of hydatid scolices decreased with environmental oxygen tension until at a tension of 0.80 ± 0.48 mm3 per ml the rate became and remained zero. 3. The polarographic Q O2 at an oxygen tension representing hydatid cyst fluid saturated with air (“optimum rate”) ranged from 0.39 to 1.50 (0.85 ± 0.39). 4. The Q O2 at the in vivo oxygen tension of lung cysts was 96 per cent and of liver cysts 54 per cent of the mean “optimum rate.” It would appear therefore that hydatid scolices are able to carry on predominantly aerobic metabolism in vivo. 5. Hydatid scolices possibly repay an accumulated oxygen debt following anaerobic incubation.
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