• DOI:10.1017/S0031182000068311
• Corpus ID: 45179791

The rapid development of the glucose transport system in the excysted metacestode of Hymenolepis diminuta.

@article{Rosen1994TheRD,
  title={The rapid development of the glucose transport system in the excysted metacestode of Hymenolepis diminuta.},
  author={Ronald B. Rosen and May San and M. E. Denton and J. M. Wolfe and Gary L. Uglem},
  journal={Parasitology},
  year={1994},
  volume={108 ( Pt 2)},
  pages={
          217-22
        }
}

• R. Rosen, M. San, +2 authors G. L. Uglem
• Published 1 February 1994
• Biology
• Parasitology

Temporal changes in glucose transport capacity in excysted scoleces of Hymenolepis diminuta were examined. Assays involved incubation for 1 min in [3H]glucose after pre-incubation for 1 min to 8 h in saline. There were two abrupt increases in uptake velocity, a relatively small one between 15 and 75 min, and a large one between 5 and 6 h, during which the Vmax increased from 0.36 to 2.49 nmol/25 larvae/h. The second increase was unaffected when the pre-incubation saline contained 5 mM glucose, but it was completely blocked when the excysted larvae were pre-incubated in Ca(2+)-free saline. Abrupt glucose transport changes did not occur in intact cysticercoids or in scoleces when the substrate was [3H]leucine or [3H]uracil. Arrhenius plots (log V versus 1/temperature, 10-42 degrees C) were linear for intact cysticercoids, but were biphasic for both scoleces and adults with discontinuities at 20 +/- 1 degrees C. Thus, 'activation' of the excysted scolex seemed to involve a specific, Ca(2+)-dependent increase in number of glucose transporters functioning in the worm surface. The Arrhenius plots indicated that development in the final host does not involve a major change in lipid composition of the parasite's membranes.