Effect of electric current on the activity of the protoscolices of the echinococcus granulosus

الملخص EN

The present study was undertaken to asses the effect of different direct electric current (200 mA, 400 mA and 600 mA) on the activity of protoscolices of the larval stage of Echinococcus granuosusin vitro and in vivo.

The hydatid cysts were collected from the sheep livers in the Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf carnage, they were divided into 5 groups(5 cysts in each group), the first group was considered as the control group where there was no electric current used, in the other 4 groups an electric current 200 mA, 400 mA, 600 mA and 800 mA passed through the hydatid cysts respectively, each cyst then was opened separately and its fluid was collected in sterile test tubes, then the protoscolices were isolated to evaluate their activity.

20 rats were enrolled in this study (5 rats in each group).

The first group was considered as the positive control group in which rats were injected with 1ml of protoscolices from the group that did not expose to electric current.

The second group was considered as the negative control group in which rats were injected with 1ml of normal saline not exposed to electric current.

In the third and forth groups rats were injected with 1ml of protoscolices that were exposed to electric current 600 mA and 800mA respectively.

After 3 months the rats underwent laparatomy and biopsies from the liver, spleen and lung were taken to study the histopathologic changes.

The in vitro study showed that there were significant effects and the percent of killing of the peotoscolices reached 100 % both at zero time (at 800 mA) and at the fourth minute (at 600 mA).

While the in vivo study showed that the number and size of the cysts in the body organs like liver, lung and spleen were decreased in the third and forth group when compared with the positive control group.

Microscopically, there were inflammatory cells and cysts in the infected organs of the positive control group which were disappeared when treated with the electric current without any histological changes.