Sección Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, CP 11400, Montevideo, Uruguay.
Micron. 2013 Jan;44:185-92. doi: 10.1016/j.micron.2012.06.008. Epub 2012 Jun 26.
Mesocestoides corti (syn. vogae), similar to many other cestode platyhelminthes, contains abundant calcium carbonate structures called calcareous corpuscles. These concretions that may constitute as much as 40% of the dry weight of the body, and were proposed to form intracellularly in certain parenchymal cells. As an approach to elucidate the biological role of calcareous corpuscles in cestodes, our aim was to characterize more precisely the structure and topological composition of the corpuscles from M. corti. Employing a variety of high resolution technical approaches, we found that the calcareous corpuscles are spheroid or ovoid layered concretions. They are formed by topographically homogeneous but compositionally heterogeneous layers, suggesting a cyclic process of biomineralization. The layers are composite structures, with granules of tens of nanometers, each surrounded by a cortex of about eight nanometers.
中殖孔绦虫（同许多其他扁形动物门绦虫一样）含有丰富的碳酸钙结构，称为钙质体。这些结石可能占身体干重的 40%，据推测是在某些实质细胞内形成的。为了阐明绦虫中钙质体的生物学作用，我们的目的是更精确地表征中殖孔绦虫钙质体的结构和拓扑组成。我们采用了多种高分辨率技术方法，发现钙质体是球形或卵形的层状结石。它们是由拓扑上均匀但成分上不均匀的层形成的，这表明存在一个生物矿化的循环过程。这些层是复合结构，每个颗粒周围有一个约 8 纳米厚的皮层，颗粒的直径为几十纳米。
