The effect of farnesyl methyl ether, a mimic of insect juvenile hormone, on Hymenolepis diminuta in vitro

Abstract

The effect of farnesyl methyl ether, a mimic of insect juvenile hormone, on Hymenolepis diminuta in vitro. International journal for Parasitology 4: 211–218. The inhibition of weight gain of Hymenolepis diminuta in vitro by farnesyl methyl ether (FME) was not dose-dependent, so that there were no differences produced by FME in concentrations from 10 −5 to 10 −13 m. At all concentrations of FME used the weight gain over a 6-day culture period was half of that of controls. The FME-treated and control worms were identical to each other in proglottid number and the degree of maturity. Neither the dry to wet weight ratios of worms nor the carbohydrate, protein or lipid ratios were altered by FME. The release of neurosecretory material from the neurosecretory cells in the rostellum (as measured by the degree of their fuchsinophilia) was more advanced in time in the FME-treated worms than in the controls, and it is suggested that this premature release of neurosecretion, triggered either directly or indirectly by traces of FME in the medium, upset a control mechanism in the germinative tissue of the neck region, which determines the mass, but not the number, of the proglottids in the strobila.