Scar Over?

The Chinese liver fluke is a flatworm found in freshwater environments. Around 15 million people in East Asia are currently infected by this parasite, often due to eating undercooked fish. Setting up camp in the bile ducts, the flatworm feeds on bile and causes liver scarring and cancer – although we don't understand exactly how. Here in cross-section we see two parasitic worms (white) surrounded by the scarred bile duct tissue (purple) of a mouse. Scientists developed genetically modified mice that capture the features of human disease when infected by the flatworm. Using these mice, they discovered that the Chinese liver fluke releases molecules that activate the immune system and cause inflammation. This rallies cells called myofibroblasts to the infection site, where they trigger scarring. This new understanding could help researchers develop more effective treatments for Chinese liver fluke infections and even ways to prevent the long-term damage they cause.

Written by Henry Stennett

Henry Stennett

Writer

Henry is a science communicator at Cancer Research UK and a freelance writer. He used to research microbiology but now he’s got the writing bug.

• Image from Key Laboratory of Zoonosis Research, Ministry of Education; College of Veterinary Medicine, Jilin University, Changchun, China
• Research by Yuru Wang, Xu Zhang and Xiaocen Wang et al, Key Laboratory of Zoonosis Research
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, January 2023