Ultrastructural evidence for the participation of muscle cells in the formation of extracellular matrices in aporocotylid blood flukes (Digenea)

Abstract

The muscle cells and extracellular matrices (ECMs) of two teleost-infecting blood flukes belonging to distinct evolutionary lineages of the Aporocotylidae (Digenea) were examined using Transmission Electron Microscopy. Four morphotypes of muscle cells were found in the freshwater species Sanguinicola sp., but were considered to be various developmental stages of a single cisternic type. In the marine species Aporocotyle simplex, three types of muscle cells were apparent, one of which is cisternic. The first ultrastructural evidence is presented for the exocytosis of the moderately dense contents of dilated cisternae of cisternic muscle cells into the extracellular space in both Sanguinicola sp. and A. simplex. The basal matrices of aporocotylids support various types of epithelia. In Sanguinicola sp., beneath the distal tegumental cytoplasm, there is a thin lamina densa, whereas the intestinal epithelium is supported by a lamina reticularis. In A. simplex, both a thin lamina densa and a thick lamina reticularis underlie the distal cytoplasm of the tegument and are present at the periphery of the ovary, but beneath the epithelial lining of the caeca and both genital and excretory ducts there is only a lamina reticularis. Significant variation in the development and amount of the ECM in marine and freshwater aporocotylids is described, since A. simplex has a much better developed ECM than occurs in Sanguinicola sp. Moreover, thin myofilaments of muscle fibres participate in the ECM formation in A. simplex and represent its dominant component. The presence of two mechanisms for ECM formation in A. simplex, as opposed to a single mechanism in Sanguinicola sp., may represent further evidence for the affiliation of these two taxa to divergent evolutionary lineages. The data presented are discussed in relation to available information on these structures in other neodermatan groups.