The purpose of this study is to investigate the migratory behavior of Metastronglylus apri larvae artificially attenuated by X-ray irradiation. Guinea pigs were inoculated orally with 2, 000 M. apri larvae irradiated with 5×10
4R of X-rays and killed at various intervals after inoculation. Various tissues were collected from them and examined for larvae by the pepsin digestion method (group A) and additionally by the microscopical method (group B). All larvae recovered were examined for the number and developmental stage. The results obtained were compared with those from normal larvae [4]. They are summarized as follows. On the 1st to 3rd days after inoculation, a large number of 3rd- or 4th-stage larvae were recovered from various tissues, as well as from the same tissues of normal controls. From the lungs, a few female 5th-stage worms were recovered on the 5th to 12th days, but no worms on the 15th day or later. There were no larvae in the thoracic cavity, blood from the right heart, or small intestine on any given day. In the tissues, especially in the walls of the cecum and the anterior part of the colon, and on the omentum, many larvae grew to early 4th-stage ones, but few to advanced 4th-stage ones. All the worms recovered from the lungs grew to early 5th-stage ones, but failed to reach the mature state. On the basis of these findings, it is concluded that 5×10
4R X-irradiated larvae could penetrate rapidly into the gut and migrated for about 1 to 3 days after inoculation like normal larvae, but that they could grow neither to advanced 4th-stage ones nor to early 5th-stage ones. In other words, it can be seen that 5×10
4R X-irradiation affected M. apri larvae over, or at least immdiately after, the period of transition from the 4th to 5th stage. The 4th stage, however, was sustained longer in the X-irradiated larvae than in normal ones. All the larvae that had invaded tissues may have been caught mainly in the gut, on the omentum, or at other sites to be killed and organized in these tissues.
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