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Updated: Mar 8, 2026

Cultivation of Heligmosomoides Polygyrus: An Immunomodulatory Nematode Parasite and its Secreted Products
Published on: April 6, 2015
Inflammatory arthritis and systemic bone loss are attenuated by gastrointestinal helminth parasites
Kerstin Sarter1, Manuel Kulagin2, Georg Schett3
1a Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research Laboratory (IZKF Würzburg), Department of Internal Medicine II, University of Würzburg , Würzburg , Germany.
Abstract:
Infections with different helminth species have been observed to ameliorate a variety of chronic inflammatory diseases. Herein, we show that the natural murine helminth species, Heligmosomoides polygyrus bakeri (Hp) is capable of attenuating disease severity in two different inflammatory arthritis models. Furthermore, we show that excretory-secretory (ES) products from Hp directly suppress osteoclast differentiation in vitro. Taken together, these results demonstrate that helminth infections can dampen autoimmune diseases and highlight a previously unrecognized and important role for ES products, by directly impacting on bone destruction.
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