Ankara Oııiı'. Vet. Fak. Derg.
29 (3-4) : 305-309, 1982.
5.8.1982 g011li alınmışttr. Received 0/1 5.8.1982.
SOME ASPECTS OF THE GLUCOSE \IETABOLlSl\! OF FASCIOLA GIGAl\TICA
Leyla Kalaycıoğlu* Recep Tınar* * ~urat Ertürk***
Summary: F. gigantica obtained from e>..perimentally iıifected sheep, were iııcııbated aerobically for three hours in glucose containing medium.
&lucose consumption and aeetic acid prodıııtion by F. gigantica were measured.
The ıneans of glucose consumptiun and acetic acid production in TO incubations wue 298,6::1:: 10,39 nmoles! mg protein! hour and 156,7 =!:: 10,53
nmoles / mg protein / /ıour respective(y.
Fasciola Gigantica'da glikoz metabolizması üzerinde ara,urınalar
Özet: Eksperimental ole rak enfekte edilmiş koyunlardan elde edilen F. gigaııticalar aemIJik olarak gliko.:;. ihtiva eden ortamda 3 saat süre ile inkube
edildiler. F. gigantica tarafından kullanılan glukoz ve ortamda teşekkül'eden asetik asit miktarları ölçüldü,. glukoz kullanımı iit! asetik asit teşekkülü
Of-talamaları saatte Vi! miligram proteiııde olmak üzere sırasıyla 298,6::1: IO,39
nanomol ve 156,7::1:: 10,53 nanomol olarak bıııundu.
Introduction
F. gigantica is aparasite belonging to the class of trematodcs. In the adult phasc of its life cycle, it livcs mainly in the liver of cauk, shecp and buffalocs. Fascioliasis caused by F. gigantica is a scrious disease in Turkey (5).
Glucose is the main energy SOIll'ce or many parasitic hclminths (9). Caı']nhydrate dissimilatory pathways İn most helmiıı.ts differ from the corı'cspanding pAıhway in mamal:an tissues. Unlike the host tissues, th~ parasitic worms are not capable
cr
the complcte ox-idation of substrates. Since oxiclations are incomplcte, fermentation products always accumıılate.* Associate professor of Biochcmistry. Veterinary Faculty, Ankara iTurkey •.•. Associate prolcssor of Parasitology. Veterinary Facıılıy, Ankara/Turkey
306 L. Kalaycıoglu-R. Tınar-M. Erlürk
These products diffcr both qualitatively and quantitatively with each parasite. Therefore each animal should be the subject of separate detailed investigation. in the energy-producing pathways, considerable variations exist not only from one helminth to another, but alsa within the developmental stages of a single helminth (8).
Although several investigations concerning the intermediary metabolismof the F. hcpatica have been carricd out (I ,5,6,1 2), the data on this subject for F. gigantiea is limited. Goil (4) determincd lactic acid as one of thc cnd products of carbohydratc metabolism of F. gigantica.
The principle end products of glucose metabolism in F. hepatica are propionate, acetate and carbon dioxide and minor amounts of L- lactate, succinate and iso-valerate (I ı).
In the present paper we are reporting glucose consumption and acctic acid production by F. gigantica obtained from experimentally infeeted sheep.
Materials and Methods
Adult F. gigantica used in our experiment wcre obtained by the following procedures. The eggs of F. gigantica wcre collected from the gall bIadders of naturally infected buffaloes and cattle at slaughterhous of Adana. Limnca auriculariae which were collected from thc same area, werc infccted with the miracidiae af ter hatching of the eggs. Each of one yeaı; old malc mcrino shecp were infected oraUy with 100 metacercariae. The liver flukes werc isolated af ter 18 weeks from the bile ducts of freshIy slaughtered sheep. They were im-mediatdy transferred to a solu tion containing (mM); NaCl, 120; KCl, 4; CaCI2, 0,9; MgS04, 2,4; Na HCOJ, 18; glucosc, 5,5; sodium phosphate buffcr (pH 7,5) 4. To one lt of medium 106units pcnicil-lin and 100 mg streptomycin were added (7).
Since adult liver flukes maysurvivc. for several days in a simple salt :;olution containing glucose (I i), parasites were incuIlated at 37
oc
for 24 hours in the same medium. The solu tion was changed .three times in this period and the F. gigantica with empty caeeawere uscd in the experiment. At the end of this period they were kept
2 hours in the standard medium containing the components same as
Some Aspects Of the Glucose ..• :107
The ro parasites were placed to cach f1ask of 20 mL. standard
medium having 5 mM glucose.
Ten incubatian flasks were closed and incubated at 37°C in a shaking water bath for 3 hours. The samplcs from flasks were taken one hour intervals for analysis of glucosc and aeetic acid.
The kit for- enzymatic determination of glueose (bio Merieux France) was used in glucose assay.
For acetic acid dctermination, the kit for determination of acetic acid in food stuffs (Boehringer, Mannheim) was used.
At the terminationof incubation period, the parasites were re-moved from the medium and homogenizcd, protein contents deter-mined in the homogenates according to the method of Gleland and Slater (2). Protei-trol ofbio. Merieux was used as protein standard.
Results
The results of the incubatian of intact F. gigantica aerobically are presented in table i and 2.
Table ı.The glucose consumptioıı by F. gigantica (In each experiment LOF. gigaııtica were incubated in 20 mL. mcdium for 3 hours).
Experiment nmole[mg. proteiıı[hour
i 306 2 286 3- 283 4 293 5 310 6 266 7 243 8 323 9 363 lO 313 Mean 298.6:1:10.39 . Range 243-363
As shown in tables, glucose consumption by the parasites ranged form 243 to 363 nmoles / mg protein / hour and aeetie acid produc-tion from i i6 to 22i nmoles / mg protein / houl'.
3<i8 L. . Kalaycıoğlıı-R. Tınar-M. Erıürk
Table 2. The acetic production by F. giganıiea (In each experiment 10 F. gigantica were incubated in 20 mL. medium for 3 hours).
Experiment nmole frng protein fhour .'
ı 2 3 4 :ı 6 7 II 9 LO ",{can 135 116 132 15°.5 158.3 i3:i. 3 14°.6 221 Ifl4 196.3 ---_._-
-
---_ .. _---Range Discuss'ion 116-221Vnder the experimental eonditions wc uscd, acctic acid was found as an end product of glucosc metabolism in F. gigantiea. The mean glucose consumption by the parasite was 298,6::l::10,39 nmo-lesf mg protein
i
hour and the mcan acctic acid prodııction was15(),7::!::IO,53 nmolesl mg protein/hour.
Vugt and Ivf.ccr (ıo) round 175 nmoles i mg protein / hom glııcose consumption and 137 nmolcsj mg protein / hour acctic acid produetion by F. hepatica. The difl'erencc of glucose consumption betwcen ıh~se two Fasdola specics is in accord with the observa-tion. that small sized animals g,~nerally have a higher mtc of me-tabolic activity.
GJil (4) has investigated 0,4G
%
fresh w,jght lactic acid pro-dueıion by F. gigantica in the incubatiol1 with glyeageıı.Propioniç, acetic, lactic, succİnic acids and carbon c1ioxide were found as the end proclucts of glııcose mctabolism in F. hepatica (3). The obscrvations suggest that F. gİgantica has a similar pathway of carbohydrate mctabohm with F. hcpatica at kast qualitativcly in rcspect of some of the end products of ghıeosc metabolism.
References
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Some Aspects Of the Glucose ... 309
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