Diarrhoea due to Giardia lamblia

Giardia Lamblia.

Giardia lamblia and Giardiasis

Introduction Ask the average outdoors person about Giardia lamblia, and they have certainly heard about it. Almost always, however, they are considerably misinformed about both the organism’s significance in wilderness water and the seriousness of the disease, giardiasis, if contracted. The amount of information easily found on the subject is voluminous. Unfortunately, almost all of it is flawe...

Biology of Giardia lamblia.

Giardia lamblia is a common cause of diarrhea in humans and other mammals throughout the world. It can be distinguished from other Giardia species by light or electron microscopy. The two major genotypes of G. lamblia that infect humans are so different genetically and biologically that they may warrant separate species or subspecies designations. Trophozoites have nuclei and a well-developed c...

Binding of cholera toxin to Giardia lamblia.

Binding of cholera toxin to Giardia lamblia was demonstrated by two slightly different methods: an immunofluorescence technique using antibody to cholera toxin and anti-rabbit immunoglobulin G conjugated to fluorescein isothiocyanate, and a one-step fluorescence method in which G. lamblia was incubated with the B subunit of cholera toxin conjugated to fluorescein isothiocyanate.

Lectin binding by Giardia lamblia.

Surface carbohydrates of Giardia lamblia were examined using six plant lectins chosen because of their specificity for major carbohydrates moieties. The binding to axenically grown G. lamblia trophozoites was assessed in both a quantitative microagglutination assay and a fluorescence assay. Of the six lectins tested, wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) agglutinated the highest percentage (22.9 +/- 3.7%...