Genetic Diversity of Hepatic/Non-Hepatic Cystic Echinococ-cosis in Baqiyatallah Hospital, Tehran, Iran

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a worldwide zoonotic helminthic disease caused by the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus. The infection is particularly important in terms of economic and medico-veterinary aspects in endemic areas including Iran. Considering the possibility of organ-tropism in E. granulosus strains, the present study was aimed to identify the genotypes of E. granulosus in different organs involved in patients, undergone surgery in Baqiyatallah Hospital, Tehran, Iran from 2005-2015.

Overall, 29 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues (FFPT) from patients with histologically confirmed CE including liver (N: 14) lungs (N: 6) abdomen (N: 2), pancreas (N: 2) and each of spleen, gallbladder and, muscles (N: 1) plus unknown organs (N: 2) were used and genetically characterized using polymerase chain reaction, followed by partial sequencing of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase gene subunit 1(cox1) and analyzed.

Nineteen out of 29 isolates including liver (N: 6) lungs (N: 4) abdomen (N: 2), pancreas (N: 2) and each of spleen, gallbladder, and muscle (N: 1), unknown organs (N: 2) obtained from paraffin-embedded blocks of human CE created an acceptable sequence in two directions. All 19 isolates regardless of the organ involved were recognized as E. granulosus sensu stricto (G1).

The sequence alignments of the isolates displayed two profiles. All sequenced samples showed E. granulosus sensu stricto (G1) with no organ-related genotype.