Sequential observation of pathomorphological alterations in liver of experimental murine schistosomiasis mansoni.

Fifty CFI female mice were experimentally infected with schistosomiasis mansoni (50 cercariae per mouse). This study was designed to follow the stages of structural changes that may take place in the liver of patients infected by this parasite. Histological examination of liver tissue samples were carried out weekly for ten weeks after infection with schistosomiasis mansoni cercariae. The present study suggests that the development of hepatic schistosomiasis mansoni in mice is biphasis with a first or granulomatous phase in which the morphological changes are mild and a second aggressive fibrotic phase, when hepatic collagen synthesis increases rapidly and leads to fibrotic morphological changes that are characteristic of this infection. Gross and microscopic portal fibrosis and portal vascular lesions resembled those in hepatosplenic schistosomiasis in man. The rapid production of severe hepatic fibrosis without the use of hepatotoxic compound makes this model of interest for the study of liver fibrosis and its therapy.