Immunity to Trichinella Spiralis

Abstract

Trichinella spiralis is an unusual nematode parasite in two respects. First, it spends its larval and adult life in the same host, and second, it is rather non-specific in its mammalian host range. Because of the above facts, and since T. spiralis is also a human pathogen, many investigations into the immunology of the infection have been conducted over the last 50 yr. A common feature of the infection in all hosts so far studied, save the nude athymic mouse, is that they develop some degree of acquired resistance to reinfection. The nature of the protective immunity has been the subject of many reviews. The purpose of this review is to attempt to correlate the biological activities of the various stages of the infection with what is known about host protective mechanisms active against these worm stages.