ISOENZYME PATTERNS OF BLASTOCYSTIS-HOMINIS PATIENT ISOLATES DERIVED FROM SYMPTOMATIC AND HEALTHY CARRIERS

Isolates of Blastocystis hominis derived from patients with intestinal symptoms and from healthy carriers were cultured in vitro and isoenzy me patterns of hexokinase (E.C. 2.7.1.1), phosphoglucomutase (E.C. 2.7 .5.1) and glucose phosphate isomerase (E.C. 5.3.1.9) were investigated to find evidence for pathogenic and non-pathogenic subspecies of B. h ominis. For this purpose we examined 2000 patients of the out-patient department of the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Tubingen. From th ese, we obtained 232 B. hominis patient isolates; 119 isolates could b e tested for the three isoenzymes. Blastocystis hominis possesses 5 pa tterns for hexokinase, 11 for phosphoglucomutase and 35 for glucose ph osphate isomerase, showing that B. hominis is highly polymorphic. Howe ver, there was no correlation between isoenzyme patterns and disease o f patients.