Kd. Murrell et al., IMPROVED METHOD FOR THE RECOVERY OF ASCARUS-SUUM LARVAE FROM PIG INTESTINAL-MUCOSA, The Journal of parasitology, 83(2), 1997, pp. 321-324
In the course of a comprehensive study on the population biology of As
caris suum, it became necessary to determine quantitatively the migrat
ion of the larvae (L(2)) through the pig intestine. Because no satisfa
ctory methods for recovering these larvae from the intestinal mucosa w
ere apparently available in the literature, we undertook the developme
nt of such a procedure. Direct Baermannization of the intestine proved
inadequate, so a series of studies was undertaken to find a method to
solubilize the mucosa and free the larvae. Both pepsin digestion and
mucus reduction with N-acetyl cysteine were evaluated. The highest rec
overy rates were obtained with short-term pepsin digestion (45-90 min)
, followed by a specific settling and washing procedure. A third alter
native, migration of larvae out of agar-gel, was also tested. Although
the recovery efficiency was low (10% of pepsin digestion), the larvae
recovered were clean, with good motility. The agar-gel procedure coul
d be useful when L(2) larvae are needed for other purposes, such as an
tigen preparation or cultivation.