Sarcocystis

Sarcocystis

 [sahr″ko-sis´tis]

a genus of coccidian protozoa parasitic in birds, reptiles, and mammals, including humans, cattle, horses, sheep, swine, and rabbits and other rodents, occurring as elongated cylindrical bodies (sarcocysts) in the host's muscles. They have an obligatory two-host life cycle, involving sexual reproduction in the definitive host (a carnivore) and asexual reproduction, including schizogony and sarcocyst formation, which occurs in the intermediate host. Infection is transmitted by ingestion of the sporocysts in the feces passed by infected animals. See also sarcocystosis.

Sarcocystis boviho´minis a species for which cattle are the specific intermediate hosts and humans the definitive hosts; it causes intestinal sarcocystosis in humans. It was formerly considered to be combined with S. suihominis in a single species, S. hominis (Isospora hominis).

Sarcocystis lindeman´ni a species causing human infection, most cases of which are asymptomatic, although it may cause polymyositis sometimes associated with eosinophilia.

Sarcocystis suiho´minis a species for which swine are the specific intermediate hosts and humans the definitive hosts; it causes intestinal sarcocystosis in humans. It was formerly considered to form a single species with S. bovihominis, called S. hominis (Isospora hominis).

Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, Seventh Edition. © 2003 by Saunders, an imprint of Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sarcocystis

(sar'kō-sis'tis),

A genus of protozoan parasites, related to the sporozoan genera Eimeria, Isospora, and Toxoplasma, and placed in a distinct family, Sarcocystidae, but with the above genera in the same suborder, Eimeriina, within the subclass Coccidia, class Sporozoea, and phylum Apicomplexa. Tissue stages of Sarcocystis are usually seen as thick-walled cylindric or (often extremely large [1 cm or more]) fusiform cysts (Miescher tubes) in reptile, bird, or mammal striated muscles. Cysts are smooth in the house mouse form or with radial spines (cytophaneres) in sheep or rabbit; contents may be compartmentalized by septa. Variably shaped spores (Rainey corpuscles) probably are peripheral rounded cells (sporoblasts, cytomeres) that divide to form mature "spores" (bradyzoites), motile bodies when released from the cyst; sexual stages have been described in tissue cultures. These parasites are abundant but rarely of pathogenic significance. Humans who have ingested meat containing the mature sarcocysts serve as the definitive hosts; fever, severe diarrhea, abdominal pain, and weight loss have been reported in a small number of immunocompromised hosts. When humans accidentally ingest oocysts from other animal stool sources, the sarcocysts that develop in human muscle appear to cause no inflammatory response.

[sarco- + G. kystis, bladder]

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