In vitro maintenance of protoscolices of lung hydatid cyst of sheep at 37oC

Hydatidosis is one of the most important parasitic zoonosis and one of the hygienic complications in many countries including Iran. An important research area, relating to the control of hydatidosis, is recognition of new scolicidal drugs. For this porpose viable protoscolices are needed in the laboratory. In the present study the possibility of in vitro survival of protoscolices of lung hydatid cysts of sheep at 37oC in normal saline and hydatid fluid is investigated. The infected lungs were taken to the laboratory and protoscolices were collected aseptically, washed three times in normal saline and were used in experiments. The viability of protoscolices was confirmed using 0.1% eosin stain.The maintenance temperature was 37oC. The viability of protoscolices was checked until 10th days of incubation for normal saline and until 37th days of incubation for hydatid fluid. The survival rate of protoscolices maintained in normal saline at 3th, 6th and 8th days of incubation was 69.84%, 52.86% and 26.86% respectively but in 10th day of incubation, all protoscolices maintained in normal saline were dead. The survival rate of protoscolices maintained in hydatid fluid at 6th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 24th, 29th and 33th days of incubation was 87.42%, 77.37%, 61.85%, 57.05%, 41.87%, 39.08% and 35.33% respectively. The results of this study indicated that for maintenance of protoscolices of lung hydatid cysts at 37oC, lung hydatid fluid is distinctly periferable media comparing with normal saline.