Figure 1.
Cercaria and invasive tunnel in epidermis of human skin at 1/2-hour post invasion.
A). The parasite larva is just entering the dermis toward the bottom of the figure. Note tunnel (arrows) formed from destruction of epidermal cells by both acantholysis and apoptosis. It is fluid from these tunnels that was targeted for proteome analysis. B) Model of presumed acquisition of fluid from skin invaded by schistosome cercariae. Proteins from the tunnels produced by cercariae (C), as well as lysed epidermal cells and dermal fluid are identified in Tables 1 and 2.
Table 1.
Cercarial Proteins with Proposed Biological Function Released During Skin Invasion.
Table 2.
Quantitative Comparison of Human Proteins Detected.
Figure 2.
Tunel assay demonstrating apoptosis of epidermal cells (punctate brown immunoperoxidase staining on left).
A cercaria is immediately above 100-micron bar. It is now in the dermis (D), but had invaded epidermis from left to right. Internal control is absence of apoptotic signal in intact epidermis on right (E).