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Host-Parasite Relationships in Echinococcosis

III. Relation of Environmental Oxygen Tension to the Metabolism of Hydatid Scolices^*

The polarographic method for oxygen was applied to the problem of aerobiasis-anaerobiasis in echinococcosis to show that:

1. The dissolved oxygen content of fluids of 3 hydatid cysts of the bovine lung ranged from 2.80 to 3.12 mm³ per ml, of 7 hydatid cysts of the bovine liver from 1.28 to 2.28 mm³ per ml.

2. The Q_O2 of hydatid scolices decreased with environmental oxygen tension until at a tension of 0.80 ± 0.48 mm³ per ml the rate became and remained zero.

3. The polarographic Q_O2 at an oxygen tension representing hydatid cyst fluid saturated with air ("optimum rate") ranged from 0.39 to 1.50 (0.85 ± 0.39).

4. The Q_O2 at the in vivo oxygen tension of lung cysts was 96 per cent and of liver cysts 54 per cent of the mean "optimum rate." It would appear therefore that hydatid scolices are able to carry on predominantly aerobic metabolism in vivo.

5. Hydatid scolices possibly repay an accumulated oxygen debt following anaerobic incubation.

^* Aided by grants to the Department of Tropical Health from Pfizer International and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, U.S.P.H.S. (E-1769). Portion of a thesis submitted by the senior author for the degree of Master of Science in Chemistry.