[Effect of cestodes on the tissue lipid composition of the burbot and stickleback]

The effect of cestodes of the genus Diphyllobothrium on the lipoid contents of tissues of freshwater fishes has been studied. The level of general lipids in the liver of burbot and stickleback infected with plerocercoids of D. latum and D. vogeli, respectively, decreases. It occurs in general on account of decrease in contents of structural lipids, phospholipids, while the contents of triacylglycerines, cholesterol and its ethers change but negligibly. Simultaneous parasitism of plerocercoids of D. latum and Triaenophorus nodulosus in the liver of burbot causes especially great changes in the lipoid metabolism. Certain changes in the ratio of some phospholipid fractions take place in infected tissues: the decrease in the level of phosphatidylcholine and the parallel rise in the fraction of lysophosphatidylcholine. The ratio between other phospholipids virtually does not change.