4th stage / Medical Laboratory Technology

Helminthes
By
Dr. Iltefat Amer
M.Sc., Ph.D. Biological Sciences (Parasitology)
 Helminthes: General Features
The term “helminth” (Greek helmins-’worm’) originally referred to intestinal
worms, but now comprises many other worms, including tissue parasites as well as
many free-living species.
Helminthes have an outer protective covering, the cuticle or integument which may
be tough and armed with spines or hooks.
The mouth may be provided with teeth or cutting plates.
Many helminthes possess suckers or hooks for attachment to host tissues.
The cuticle of live helminthes is resistant to intestinal digestion. They do not
possess organs of locomotion, but in some species the suckers assist in movement.
Locomotion is generally by muscular contraction and relaxation.
Helminthes do not possess a true body cavity.
In some parasitic helminthes the digestive system is absent or rudimentary as they
depend on predigested nutrients available from the host.
Many helminthes have a primitive nervous system.
The greatest development is seen in the reproductive system.
Helminths may be monoecious (with functioning male and female sex organs in the
same individual) or diecious (the two sexes, male and female, separate).
 In the hermaphroditic helminths both male and female reproductive systems are
present in the same worm and self-fertilisation as well as cross-fertilisation take place.
In the diecious species males and females are separate, the male being smaller than
the female.
The eggs or larvae are produced in enormous numbers—as many as 200,000 or more
per female per day.
It has been estimated that their chance of survival and subsequent infection may be
less than one in a million. Survival and development are further complicated by the
fact that many helminthes require more than one intermediate host for completion of
their life cycle.
Helminthes differ from protozoa in their inability to multiply in the body of the host.
Protozoa multiply in the infected person so that disease could result from a single
infection.
But helminthes apart from very rare exceptions do not multiply in the human body
so that a single infection does not generally lead to disease. Heavy worm load follows
multiple infections.
 Helminthes

Trematoda Cestoda Nematoda

Ascaris lambricoides
Schistosoma hematobium Teania solium Enterobius vermicularis
Schistosoma mansoni Teania saginata Trichuris trichura
Schistosoma jabonicum Hymenolepis nana Ttichenala spiralis
Fasciula hepatica Hymenolepis diminuta Strongyloides sterocoralis
Diplidium caninum Ancylostoma duadenale
Diphyllobathrium latum
Echinococcus granulosus Filariae
 Helminthes are classified into two broad groups

Phylum: Phylum:
. Platyhelminthes Nemathelminthes
(The flat worms) The cylindrical worms

Class
Nematoda
Class Class Round worm
Trematoda Cestoda
(leaf-like) (tape-like)
Trematoda Cestoda Nematoda
leaf-like)) (tape-like) (round worm)
Phylum: Platyhelminthes
Classe : Trematoda (Flukes)
General characters
Termatodes are un segmented helminthes which are flat and broad, resembling the
leaf of a tree or a flatfish
The name Trematode comes from their having large prominent suckers with a hole in
the middle (Greek trema—hole, eidos—appearance).
They vary in size from the species just visible to the naked eye, like Heterophyes to
the large fleshy flukes, like Fasciola.
A conspicuous feature is the presence of two muscular cup-shaped suckers (hence
called Distomata)—the oral sucker surrounding the mouth at the anterior end and the
ventral sucker or acetabulum in the middle, ventrally
The body is covered by an integument which often bears spines, papillae or
tubercles.
They have no body cavity, circulatory or respiratory organs.
There is a rudimentary nervous system consisting of paired ganglion cells.
Digestive system
The alimentary system consists of the mouth surrounded by the oral sucker, a
muscular pharynx and the esophagus which bifurcates anterior to the acetabulum to
form two blind caeca.
the anus is absent, the excretory system consists of flame cells and collecting
tubules which lead to a median bladder opening posteriorly.

Reproductive system
Flukes are hermaphroditic (monoecious) except for Schistosoma in which the sexes are
separate
The reproductive system is well-developed. The hermaphroditic flukes have both male
and female structures so that self - fertilization takes place, though in many species cross-
fertilization also occurs. In the Schistosoma the sexes are separate.
General Life Cycle of Trematodes
Eggs
➢ are operculated, except in the case of
Schistosoma.
➢ The eggs hatch in water to form the first
stage larva

Miracidium
It’s the motile ciliated stage (Greek
miracidium—a ‘little boy’).
Its infects the intermediate host snail in
which further development takes place.
Miracidium sheds its cilia and becomes the
Sporocyst
 Sporocyst
➢ Its sac-like Sporocyst (meaning a ‘bladder
containing seeds’). Within the sporocyst,
certain cells proliferate to form the germ balls,
which are responsible for asexual replication.

Redia
The sporocyst matures into a more complex
larval stage name Redia , which produce
cercariae.
 Cercariae
➢ Cercariae are tailed larvae and hence their
name (Greek kerkos—tail). In Schistosoma,
cercariae have a forked tail and infect the
definitive host by direct skin penetration. In
the hermaphroditic flukes, the cercariae have
an unsplit tail

Metacercariae
➢ When cercariae encyst on vegetables or
within a second intermediate host, fish, or
crab, form the metacercariae, which is the
infective forms
 Miracidium
Sporocyst

Life cycle
Eggs

Redia
Adult Metacercariae Cercariae
Phylum: Platyhelminthes
Classe : Cestoda (tapeworms)
General characters
Cestodes (Greek Kestos—girdle or ribbon) are segmented tape-like worms whose sizes vary
from a few millimetres to several metres.
The adult worm consists of three parts—the head, neck and trunk.
The head (scolex) carries grooved or cup-like suckers, which are the organs of attachment to
the intestinal mucosa of the definitive host, human or animal.
The neck, immediately behind the head is the region of growth, where the segments of the
body are being continuously generated.
The trunk (called strobila) is composed of a chain of proglottides or segments. The
proglottides near the neck are the young immature segments, behind them are the mature
segments and at the hind end are the gravid segments
 Tapeworms do not have a body cavity or alimentary canal.
Rudimentary excretory and nervous systems are present.
The reproductive system is well-developed and the proglottides are practically filled with
reproductive organs.
Tapeworms are hermaphrodites (monoecious) and every mature segment contains both male
and female sex organs. In the immature segments the reproductive organs are not well
developed, they are well-differentiated in the mature segments.
The gravid segments are completely occupied by the uterus filled with eggs.
The embryo inside the egg is called the oncosphere (meaning ‘hooked ball’) because it is
spherical and has hooklets.
Oncospheres of human tapeworms typically have 3 pairs of hooklets and so are called
hexacanth (meaning six-hooked) embryos.
Humans are the definitive host for most tapeworms which cause human infection, an important
exception is the dog tapeworm Echinococcus granulosus for which dog is the definitive host and
man the intermediate host.
For the pork tapeworm Taenia solium man is ordinarily the definitive host, but its larval stages
also can develop in the human body.
 Suckers

neck

Scolex and neck

Mature segments
Adult

Oncospheres
((hexacanth

Gravid segment
Egg
Phylum: Nemathelminthes
Classe : Nematoda (cylindrical worms)
General characters
➢ Nematodes are elongated, cylindrical, unsegmented worms with tapering ends.
➢ The name ‘nematode’ means‘thread-like’, from nema, thread. They are bilaterally
symmetrical, with a secondary triradiate symmetry at the anterior end.
➢ The adults vary greatly in size, from about a millimeter to a meter in length.
➢ The body is covered with a tough cuticle, which may be smooth, striated, bossed or
spiny. They move by sinuous flexion of the body.
➢ The body cavity is a pseudocoele in which all the viscera are suspended.
➢ The digestive system consists of the anteriorly mouth, leading to the oesophagus which
characteristically varies in shape and structure in different groups.
➢ The intestine is lined with a single layer of columnar cells and leads to the rectum,
opening through the anus.
➢ In the male, the rectum and the ejaculatory duct open into the cloaca.
➢ Nematodes have simple excretory and nervous systems.
➢ The sexes are separate. The male reproductive system consists of a single delicate
tubule differentiated into testis, vas deferens, seminal vesicle and ejaculatory duct which
opens into the cloaca.
➢ The female reproductive system consists of the ovary, oviduct, seminal receptacle,
uterus and vagina.
➢ Nematodes may produce eggs (oviparous) or larvae (viviparous). Some lay eggs
containing larvae which immediately hatch out (ovoviviparous).
➢ The life cycle consists typically of four larval stages and the adult form. The cuticle is shed
in passing from one stage to another.
➢ Unlike trematodes and cestodes, all of which are parasitic, most nematodes are free-living
forms found in soil and water. Several species are parasites of plants, of great economic
importance.

Egg

Adult (male and female)