1 Helminths facilitate their own survival by actively modulating the immune systems of 2 their hosts. We investigated the impact different life-cycle stages of the rodent filaria 3 Litomosoides sigmodontis have on the inflammatory responses of mice injected with sub4 lethal doses of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Mice infected with female adult worms from 5 prepatent infections, those which have not...

Sera from cases of elephantiasis due to Wuchereria bancrofti infection promoted an intense adhesion of peripheral blood leukocytes to W. bancrofti microfilariae in vitro. A similar adhesion was also seen using sera from some normal persons living for several years in areas where filariasis is endemic. No such adhesion was evident with sera from microfilaria carriers or from normal subjects from...

Acute liver failure was diagnosed in a 12-year-old cat. Fine needle aspirate cytology revealed high numbers of unsheathed microfilariae and a hepatocellular reaction with no evidence of bacterial infection. The microfilariae were identified as those of Dirofilaria repens by acid phosphatase staining. The high number of microfilariae seen in both the blood and the liver aspirate samples as well ...

The life cycle begins when a female mosquito bites an infected dog and ingests the microfilariae during a blood meal. The microfilariae develop further for 10 30 days in the mosquito's gut and then enter its mouthparts. At this stage, they are infective larvae and can complete their maturation when they enter a dog. The infective larvae enter the dog's body when the mosquito bites the dog. They...

SIR, Living microfilariae in the anterior chamber of the eye are a common sign of ocular onchocerciasis, but so far there has been no known technique for photographing them. A microfilaria in the corneal stroma was photographed with a retroillumination technique by Brown (1971), but the living microfilariae in the anterior chamber present a problem because of their mobility. Sarkies (1951) obse...

To the Editor: Onchocerca lupi (Spirurida, Onchocercidae) is a nematode that infects the ocular tissues of dogs and humans. This filarioid remained almost unknown until recently, when it was reported in dogs from Europe and North America (1–3). O. lupi was also detected in 2 cats from the United States (4), which suggests that not only canids but also felids are suitable hosts for this little-k...

Filariases are caused by onchocercid nematodes that are transmitted by arthropod vectors. More than 180 million people are infected worldwide. Mass drug administration has been set up in many endemic areas to control the parasite burden. Although very successful in limiting microfilarial load, transmission has not been completely interrupted in such areas. A proportion of infected patients with...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Mass administration of ivermectin drug was carried out annually between 1995 and 2001 in three villages that were endemic for onchocerciasis in the Lower Cross River Basin, Nigeria. The aim of this study was to evaluate the population dynamics (dispersion patterns, distribution, prevalence and intensity) of Onchocerca volvulus microfilariae in their human host after six ...

A possible role for C1q in antibody-dependent granulocyte-mediated killing of nonphagocytosable targets was investigated utilizing IgG-dependent granulocyte cytotoxicity directed against microfilariae of Dirofilaria immitis. Granulocyte-mediated killing of microfilariae is enhanced by addition of fresh serum. Lack of C4 did not significantly reduce the observed increase in cytotoxicity. The add...