Observations on the axenic culture of metacestodes of Hymenolepis diminuta

The modification of a technique originally developed by Voge and Green for the axenic culture of Hymenolepis diminuta metacestodes is reported. Hatched oncospheres, cultured in microtitre plate wells at a density of 125 parasites per well, grew to the stage of scolex retraction in a minimum of 13 days in Schneider's Drosophila medium supplemented with 20% foetal calf serum and L-cysteine. Parasite growth was found to be density dependent. Initially, high parasite densities significantly increased the growth rate, but at later stages growth was suppressed. Metacestodes grown in this system were infective to rats 29 days post hatching. The effect of various changes to the culture conditions are discussed, notably the lethal effect of adding haemolymph from an intermediate host, Tenebrio molitor.