Schistosoma mansoni: Topochemical features of cercariae, schistosomula, and adults

Abstract

The teguments of developing and mature cercariae, recently transformed, and 1-wk-old schistosomula and adult worms were examined for the ultrastructural location of macromolecular carbohydrates and polyelectrolytes. The surface of mature cercariae within sporocysts and cercariae released from the snail is covered by a filamentous coat which reacts with cytochemical reagents for the demonstration of vicinal glycols, but neither the coat nor the surface of the tegument plasmalemma binds cationic colloidal iron at low pH. Upon penetrating mammalian skin, the cercaria sheds its surface coat; the tegument surface of newly transformed schistosomula, older schistosomula and adult worms stains en bloc with acidic colloidal iron, as does the tegument plasmalemma of mature cercariae if the overlying filamentous coat is first removed by physicochemical means. The cercarial coat thus serves to mask anionic groups at the surface of the tegument plasmalemma which become functionally exposed after penetration of the mammalian host. The distribution of colloidal iron binding sites coincides with those for the carbohydrate-complexing phytohemmagglutnin, concanavalin A, which suggests that these membrane-fixed anions are acid mucopolysaccharides, glycoproteins or glycolipids. Carbohydrate-containing material was also localized within membrane-bound vesicles of the tegument matrix and perikarya of developing cercariae and postcercarial schistosomes, suggesting that surface mucosubstances contributing to the tegument glycocalyx of these worms are elaborated, at least in part, by the tegument itself.