Figures
SEM of Schistosoma mansoni cercaria secreting the contents of its acetabular glands.
S. mansoni is one of the causative agents of schistosomiasis, a disease affecting upwards of 200 million people worldwide. Upon contact with human skin, the larval stage of the parasite is induced to secrete vesicles from a glandular network of cells. The vesicles, visualized here emerging from the anterior end of the larva, aid in the initial attachment of the parasite to the surface of skin and also encapsulate proteolytic enzymes necessary for the degradation of dermal proteins during subsequent migration through skin. See Ingram et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0001337.
Image Credit: Stephanie Hopkins (Sandler Center for Drug Discovery)
Citation: (2011) PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Issue Image | Vol. 5(9) September 2011. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 5(9): ev05.i09. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pntd.v05.i09
Published: September 27, 2011
Copyright: © 2011 Ingram. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
S. mansoni is one of the causative agents of schistosomiasis, a disease affecting upwards of 200 million people worldwide. Upon contact with human skin, the larval stage of the parasite is induced to secrete vesicles from a glandular network of cells. The vesicles, visualized here emerging from the anterior end of the larva, aid in the initial attachment of the parasite to the surface of skin and also encapsulate proteolytic enzymes necessary for the degradation of dermal proteins during subsequent migration through skin. See Ingram et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0001337.
Image Credit: Stephanie Hopkins (Sandler Center for Drug Discovery)