Echinostoma caproni in mice: ultrastructural studies on the formation of immune complexes on the surface of an intestinal trematode

The binding of mouse antibodies to the surface antigens of juvenile and 7 and 28 day old Echinostoma caproni was examined by transmission electron microscopy of thin sections of parasites, which were treated with antibodies in a double sandwich technique with ferritin-conjugated antibody. The surface of freshly recovered mature adult parasites was covered with an irregular but often rather intensive mouse antibody containing matrix, which probably represents a layer of mouse antibody/parasite antigen complexes. The complexes were lost after in vitro culturing of the parasites for 24 h, but incubation of the in vitro-maintained antibody-negative adult parasites with immune mouse serum led to reformation of a similar but less intensive cover with immune complexes. Juvenile and young stages of E. caproni, which had never been exposed to host antibodies, obtained a layer of immune complexes on their surface after incubation with immune mouse serum in vitro. In both young and mature parasites, the antibody-antigen complexes were observed to be rather loosely attached to the outer surface of the parasites, where the antigens probably constitute a part of the irregular glycocalyx of the organisms. It may also be that the antigens are present as isolated excretion along the surface of the parasites. Several sections indicated that the parasite surface antigens may be present in the tegument in vesicles which fuse with the outer membrane of the parasite whereby their contents are released to the exterior.