Study of larval stages of Taenia solium

1. Pathogenicity of Taenia solium

a. Taeniasis
 Human taeniasis is a parasitic infection caused by three tapeworm species, T.
saginata (known as the beef tapeworm), T. solium (pork tapeworm), and T.
asiatica (the Asian tapeworm). Humans are the only hosts for these Taenia tapeworms.
 Humans pass the tapeworm segments and/or eggs in feces and contaminate the soil in
areas where sanitation is poor. Taenia eggs can survive in a moist environment and
remain infective for days to months. Cows and pigs become infected after feeding in
areas that are contaminated with Taenia eggs from human feces.
 Once inside the cow or pig, the Taenia eggs hatch in the animal’s intestine and migrate
to striated muscle to develop into cysticerci, causing a disease known as cysticercosis.
Cysticerci can survive for several years in animal muscle. Humans become infected
with tapeworms when they eat raw or undercooked beef or pork containing infective
cysticerci.
 Once inside humans, Taenia cysticerci migrate to the small intestine and mature to
adult tapeworms, which produce segments and eggs that are passed in feces.
b. Cysticerosis
 Cysticercosis is a parasitic tissue infection caused by larval cysts of the
tapeworm Taenia solium.
 These larval cysts infect brain, muscle, or other tissue, and are a major cause of adult
onset seizures in most low-income countries.
 A person gets cysticercosis by swallowing eggs found in the feces of a person who has
an intestinal tapeworm. People living in the same household with someone who has a
tapeworm have a much higher risk of getting cysticercosis than people who don’t.
 People do not get cysticercosis by eating undercooked pork. Eating undercooked pork
can result in intestinal tapeworm if the pork contains larval cysts. Pigs become infected
by eating tapeworm eggs in the feces of a human infected with a tapeworm.
2. Life Cycle of Taenia Solium
 Eggs or gravid proglottids are passed with feces; the eggs can survive for days to months
in the environment. Cattle (T. saginata) and pigs (T. solium) become infected by ingesting
vegetation contaminated with eggs or gravid proglottids.
 In the animal’s intestine, the oncospheres hatch, invade the intestinal wall, and migrate to
the striated muscles, where they develop into cysticerci.
 A cysticercus can survive for several years in the animal. Humans become infected by
ingesting raw or undercooked infected meat. In the human intestine, the cysticercus
develops over 2 months into an adult tapeworm, which can survive for years.
 The adult tapeworms attach to the small intestine by their scolex and reside in the small
intestine. Length of adult worms is usually 5 m or less for T. saginata (however it may
reach up to 25 m) and 2 to 7 m for T. solium.
 The adults produce proglottids which mature, become gravid, detach from the tapeworm,
and migrate to the anus or are passed in the stool (approximately 6 per day). T.
saginata adults usually have 1,000 to 2,000 proglottids, while T. solium adults have an
average of 1,000 proglottids.
 The eggs contained in the gravid proglottids are released after the proglottids are passed
with the feces. T. saginata may produce up to 100,000 and T. solium may produce 50,000
eggs per proglottid respectively.
3. Larva of Taenia solium
a. Cysticercus stage

 The hexacanth loses its hooks in the voluntary muscles of the pig and develops into a pre-
adult stage called as cysticercus or metacestode phase. The early cysticercus absorbs
nutritive substance from host tissues and grows in size. A cavity appears in the center of
its cell mass due to the degeneration of the mesenchymal cells.
 This cavity gets filled with fluid containing plasma of the pig. At this stage the embryo is
surrounded by two layers namely the outer cuticle and the inner mesenchymal layer or
germinal layer.
 The wall of the embryo gets thickened and invaginates into tits cavity in the form of a knob.
Internally this knob develops four suckers, a small rostellum and hooks at its base. It is
called as proscolex. The embryo is now called mature cysticercus or hydatid larva or
bladder worm. It has ellipsoid milky white bladder surrounded by fibrous capsule. These
cysts are called cysticercus cellulosae. The pork with these cysticercus cellulosae is called
measly pork
Infection to the final host

 Further development of the bladder worm takes place only inside the definitive host.
Infection of man occurs when inadequately cooked pork infected with bladder worms is
eaten. The cysticercus becomes active in the intestine. The scolex takes a firm hold of
intestinal wall of the host. The bladder is thrown off and the neck starts budding off
segments an adult tapeworm is formed.
 A cysticercus is a bladder-like transparent vesicle. It is composed of two main parts: the
vesicular wall and a scolex.
 The vesicular wall is a complex structure made up of three distinct layers. The outermost
is a smooth and undifferentiated layer called cuticular mantle.
 The middle is composed of cells that resemble epithelial cells. The innermost is made up
of muscle and other fibres. Inside the vesicular wall is an invaginated (facing inward)
scolex. The scolex contains suckers and hooks, and a neck attached to a rudimentary body
segment

Larval stage of Taenia solium

Slide View (to be made on the page of larval stage on right side corner)