title: Schistosoma mansoni specimens first described by Pirajá da Silva in Brazil (1908) re-examined by confocal laser scanning microscopy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pirajá da Silva made a seminal contribution to helminthology by demonstrating both schistosome eggs in feces of patients from the State of Bahia and the morphology of Schistosoma mansoni adult worms.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, a microscopic investigation of the whole-mounts deposited at the Helminthological Collection of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute is presented. Confocal laser scanning microscopy was used as the main investigation technique.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At the anterior end of the adult male, suckers with well-developed musculature and germinative cells inside the testicular lobes were observed, as well as spines located in the mid region of the male gynecophoric canal. Tegumental tubercles and transversal and longitudinal muscular bundles were observed at the dorsal surface. The female reproductive system presented a uterus lacking eggs and an elongated ovary with germinative cells. The vitellaria were restricted to the extreme posterior end of each female connected to a short vitelline duct.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results reported in this study demonstrate that the characteristic studied here are similar to those previously reported, using fresh worms. Moreover, this study also highlights the importance of deposits of specimens in helminthological collections, which further permit revisiting whole-mounts in such institutions.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório Romero Lascasas Porto, Departamento de Microbiologia, Imunologia e Parasitologia, Centro Biomédico, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. machado@uerj.br
authors.forename: José Roberto
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Machado-Silva
authors.forename: Renata Heisler
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Neves
authors.forename: Delir Corrêa
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Gomes
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D012550:Schistosoma mansoni / Q000166:cytology*