Lipids of stages in the life-cycle of the cestode Spirometra mansonoides.

The kinds and amounts of the lipids of each stage (egg, coracidium, procercoid, plerocercoid, adult) in the life-cycle of the cestode Spirometra mansonoides, and of environmental lipids, have been examined by combinations of TEAE-cellulose and silicic acid column, silica gel thin-layer and SCOT column gas-liquid chromatography. Major lipids of all stages were triacylglycerols, cholesterol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylinositol, and phosphatidylcholine. Minor lipids were sterol esters, fatty acids, benzoquinones, partial glycerides phosphatidic acid, sphingolipids and lysolipids. Triacylglycerols decreased and cholesterol and phospholipids, particularly diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylcholine, increased during embryogenesis (egg to coracidium). Neutral and phosphoglycerides had characteristic fatty acyl group patterns irrespective of life-cycle stage, except for procercoid lipids, which were unique in their content of branched and odd-numbered forms. The patterns seen in the total lipids of the various life-cycle stages were qualitatively similar to those of the environments of those stages, but were often quantitatively dissimilar.