Giardia duodenalis: genotypic comparison between a human and a canine isolates.

Introduction: Evidence suggests that giardiasis is a zoonotic disease. The present work aimed to evaluate the genetic identity of Giardia duodenalis isolated from human and dog fecal samples from Belo Horizonte.

Methods: Human and dog fecal samples were cultured for isolation of G.

The use of the antifungal agent miconazole as an inhibitor of Blastocystis hominis growth in Entamoeba histolytica/E. dispar cultures.

In regions with high prevalence, Blastocystis hominis is frequently found in association with Entamoeba histolytica/E. dispar in xenic cultures. Its exacerbated growth is often superimposed on the growth of amebas, thus impeding the continuation of the amebas in the culture, within a few generations.

Morbidity due to Schistosoma mansoni--Entamoeba histolytica coinfection in hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus).

Data on Schistosoma mansoni-Entamoeba histolytica coinfection are scarce in the literature. In the present study, hamsters that had been infected for 70 days with Schistosoma mansoni (LE strain) were inoculated via the portal vein with two strains of trophozoites of Entamoeba histolytica: ICB-EGG (highly virulent) and ICB-RPS (non-virulent). The most evident result of coinfection was increased morbidity and mortality, in comparison with either of the infections alone.

Entamoeba histolytica: an ecto-phosphatase activity regulated by oxidation-reduction reactions.

In this work, an ecto-phosphatase activity of Entamoeba histolytica was characterized using intact cells. This activity presented the following biochemical characteristics: (i) it hydrolyzes p-NPP with V(max) of 8.00+/-0.

Pathogenicity of Entamoeba dispar under xenic and monoxenic cultivation compared to a virulent E. histolytica.

Two xenic isolates and cloned cultures of Entamoeba dispar were submitted to monoxenization using Crithidia fasciculata as the associated organism. Growth in monoxenic cultivation and ability of xenic and monoxenic trophozoites to destroy VERO cells and produce lesions in hamster livers were compared to those of a virulent E. histolytica.