Schistosome motility in saline media.

Abstract

The authors observed the motility of 1067 worms used as a biological parameter indicating the vitality of the parasites, to define the survival time of S. mansoni males and females in 0,85% NaCl and PBS. Among the worms observed in 0,85% NaCl the mean time of survival in minutes was 204 for males and 240 for females and in PBS it was 267 min. for males and 344 min. for females. All the tested differences (media, sex; sex for saline group; sex for PBS group) were significant at a 0.0001 level.