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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Cercarial Transformation and in vitro Cultivation of Schistosoma mansoni Schistosomules
Published on: August 16, 2011
Pathology of periportal fibrosis involution in human schistosomiasis
1Centro de Pesquisas Gonçalo Moniz (FIOCRUZ), Bahia, Brazil.
Abstract:
Optical and electron microscopical evidences of focal matrix degradation were frequently seen in liver sections of periportal fibrosis caused by schistosomiasis mansoni in man. The material came from 14 wedge hepatic biopsies taken from patients with chronic advanced hepatosplenic disease and undergoing operations for the relief of portal hypertension. Besides the presence of focal areas of rarefaction, fragmentation and dispersion of collagen fibers, the enlarged portal spaces also showed hyperplasia of elastic tissue and disarray of smooth muscle fibers following destruction of portal vein branches. Eggs were scanty in the tissue sections, and matrix degradation probably represented involuting changes related to the progressive diminution of parasite-related aggression, which occurs spontaneously with age or after cure by chemotherapy. The changes indicative of matrix degradation now described are probably the basic morphological counterpart of periportal fibrosis involution currently being documented by ultrasonography in hepatosplenic patients submitted to curative chemotherapy.
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