Taenia hydatigena larvae vesicular concentrate reduces the egg shedding of Haemonchus contortus associated with the overexpression of abomasal cytokines in lambs.

The expression patterns of some cytokines were compared by RT-qPCR between lambs with and without Taenia hydatigena larvae vesicular concentrate (ThLVC) administration and subsequent infection with Haemonchus contortus. Lambs that received ThLVC prior to infection with H. contortus showed lower (p < 0.03) cumulative FEC (AUC = 18450 ± 3384) than infected lambs who did not receive ThLVC (AUC = 31081 ± 3277). Lambs infected with H. contortus, in general, overexpressed Th1 and Th2 cytokines in abomasal mucosa and abomasal lymph nodes, which seems to indicate a generalized and nonpolarized activation of the immune response by H. contortus. The main immunomodulatory effects of ThLVC were observed in the abomasal fundic region. The lambs that were given ThLVC prior to infection strongly overexpressed most of the studied cytokines representing the Th1 (IFNγ and IL2) and Th2 profiles (IL4, IL5, IL6 and IL10), proinflammatory cytokines (SOD1 and PRDX6) and IgE receptor; in contrast, lambs that were infected but did not receive ThLVC only moderately overexpressed IFNγ, IL4 and IL6. The absence of the significant overexpression of cytokines in lambs that only received ThLVC suggests that this derived from T. hydatigena does not have a stimulating effect per se; however, the presence of H. contortus did produce the highest expression (p < 0.01) cytokine profile among lambs that received ThLVC prior to infection compared to those who did not receive it, so its effect seems to be immunomodulatory and not only immunostimulatory.