STUDY ON MORPHOLOGICAL FORMS OF BLASTOCYSTIS ISOLATES IN IN-VITRO CULTURE FROM SYMPTOMATIC AND ASYMPTOMATIC SUBJECTS
Hanaa O. Fadl1; Dina M.H. El Akkad1; Hoda A. El Bolaky1; Dina S. Abd El Fattah2 And Safeya O. El Bassiouni1
The Departments of Medical Parasitology1 and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology2 , Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University
Blastocystis is an enteric parasite that inhabits the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of humans and many animals. The pathogenic potential of Blastocystis spp. is a subject of controversy because the organism has been found in both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. The present work was performed on sixty two subjects positive for Blastocystis, 42 cases (67.7%) with GIT (cases group) and 20 subjects (32.2%) without symptoms (control group). The present work aimed to study the different morphological forms of Blastocystis. The stool samples were examined using direct smear and in vitro cultivation using Jones' medium. It was found that the vacuolar form of Blastocystis was the predominant form found in the stool and culture of isolates from symptomatic and asymptomatic groups. The granular form and the amoeboid form were found in (75.8%) and (33.9%) of cultured stool samples from the study population (n=62) respectively. As regards the relation between Blastocystis forms in culture and symptomatic status, it was found that the granular form was present in all samples of the asymptomatic group (100%) in comparison to (64.3%) of the samples of the symptomatic group with a statistical significant difference. While the amoeboid form was present in 18 samples (42.9%) of the symptomatic group and in 3 samples (15%) of the asymptomatic group with a statistical significant difference between the two groups.
December 2016