In-vitro catabolism of L-histidine by adult schistosoma mansoni

ABSTRACT

Coupled pairs of Schistosoma mansoni retrieved from mice 6 weeks after infection, were incubated in Hank's medium containing uniformly labelled [14C] L-histidine. After 3 hours of incubation analysis of the medium by column and paper chrormatography demonstrated the presence of [14C] labeled histamine, urocanic acid, glutamic acid, imidazolepyruvic acid and imidazoleacetic acid. Non-radiolabelled glycine and alanine were also found in the medium. We conclude that histidine is rapidly taken up from medium by S. mansoni and is metabolized via decarboxylation, deamination and transamination pathways and that these products are released by the worms into their environment