Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2009
Electron-microscopical, histological and histochemical observations were carried out on the body wall of the daughter sporocyst stage of Schistosoma mattheei and S. bovis. Electron microscopy revealed that the body wall consists of a continuous outer layer of cytoplasm, collagen fibres, fibroblasts and a layer of somatic cells which are apparently continuous with the cytoplasmic layer. This layer forms numerous microvilli at the surface.
Pronounced alkaline phosphatase activity was found in the sporocyst body wall, but no evidence of esterases was found in the parasite although esterase activity was readily demonstrated in the snail tissue that the schistosome parasitized.
It is concluded that the passage of substances such as glucose across the surface of the sporocyst is an active process probably mediated by enzymes and that little, if any, lipid metabolism occurs in the sporocyst stage.