Cytotoxicity of Echinococcus granulosus cyst fluid in vitro.

In a cytotoxicity assay, using rat spleen cells as target cells, Echinococcus granulosus cyst fluid from cattle exerted a marked degree of cytotoxicity in vitro. When trypan blue exclusion or [3H]thymidine incorporation by concanavalin A stimulated spleen cells was used as a measure of cell viability, dialyzed cyst fluid showed maximum cell destruction up to a 1:8 dilution. The effect was dose and time dependent, cells being affected by 24 h after exposure to cyst fluid. The components responsible for cytotoxicity of cyst fluid were heat stable and could be recovered using gel chromatography on Sephadex G 50 and G 15 as a single low molecular weight fraction. It is assumed that the toxic products released by the living parasite can readily penetrate through the cyst wall into the surrounding host tissue. The interference of such substances with immunocompetent cells might account for the long-term survival of the parasite in the intermediate host.