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Popularization of the manipulation hypothesis
BIERLOVÁ, Tereza
This bachelor thesis deals with popularization of manipulation hypothesis among children attending elementary school and general audience in the form of short stories. In the literary part were chosen ten examples of manipulation by a parasite from scientific literature. In the research part was examined the topic of manipulation theory in the current biological textbooks for elementary school. Subsequently were created five short stories of manipulation by a parasite to help the reader understand the relationship in the examples in an easy way.
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Influence of latent toxoplasmosis on human fertility
Hlaváčová, Jana ; Kaňková, Šárka (advisor) ; Calda, Pavel (referee)
Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most widespread parasitic protozoa in humans in developed countries. It has a wide range of hosts including various warm-blooded animals and humans. Recent studies suggest that it could influence the fertility of humans. The aim of this work was to find out, what is the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in groups of women and men with fertility problems and whether Toxoplasma gondii has an effect on specific fertility parameters. In women, Significant positive correlation between toxoplasmosis and the percentage of oocytes in the follicles was found among women. Group of men with semen pathology diagnosis revealed a statistically significant negative association between toxoplasmosis and the percentage of morphologically normal sperm. It seems that latent toxoplasmosis in men can also worsen the negative effect of tobacco smoking on fertility. The impairment of fertility in men could be the result of the manipulation activity of Toxoplasma gondii, which leads to more frequent sexual intercourse due to decreased ability to conceive. This could increase the likelihood of sexual transmission, which is currently suggested as one of the possible ways of transmission of toxoplasmosis.
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Úleková reakce u osob s latentní toxoplasmosou
Příplatová, Lenka ; Flegr, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Havlíček, Jan (referee)
Possible connection between latent toxoplasmosis and schizophrenia is a very interesting and medically important topic. In this thesis I tried to map current state of knowledge in the interdisciplinary research of schizophrenia and Toxoplasma gondii and their possible connections as well as to show differences in responses between Toxoplasma-positive and Toxoplasma-negative subjects using simple computer-administered tests of prepulse inhibition of startle reaction (PPI). Such differences would suggest another similarity between schizophrenia patients and subjects with latent toxoplasmosis as the sensorimotor gating responsible for PPI was found to be disrupted in schizophrenia patients. Side goal of the study was to test newly developed PC software for testing PPI and to determine its applicability in further research. Subjects for the tests were recruited among adepts of professional military service; 409 subjects completed the test of acoustic PPI and 276 subjects completed the test of visual PPI. All the subjects were tested on presence of specific anti-Toxoplasma IgG in their blood serum. Both tests revealed significant (p<0.001) differences between responses on prepulse-preceded stimuli and plain stimuli without prepulse, no significant results were, however, gained for the effects of latent...
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Influence of latent toxoplasmosis on sex ratio and pregnancy progression - search for proximate cause
Kaňková, Šárka ; Flegr, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Votýpka, Jan (referee) ; Calda, Pavel (referee)
The boy-to-girl ratio at birth (secondary sex ratio) is around 1.06 in most populations. The sex ratio may be influenced by many factors, such as stress and immunosuppression, age of parents, parity and sex of preceding siblings. The most common human protozoan parasite in developed countries, Toxoplasma gondii (prevalence 20% - 80%), is known to change the behaviour of its intermediate hosts, thereby increasing the probability of transmission to its definitive host (the cat) by predation. The results of our retrospective cohort study suggest that the presence of Toxoplasma gondii, can influence the secondary sex ratio in humans. Depending on the antibody concentration, the probability of the birth of a boy can increase up to a value of 0.72, which means that for every 260 boys born, 100 girls are born to women with the highest concentration of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies. In accordance with results on human subjects, laboratory mice with toxoplasmosis produced a higher sex ratio than controls, in the early phase of latent infection. Our further results showed that mice in the early phase of latent infection exhibited temporarily increased production of interleukin (IL)-12 and decreased production of IL-10. The mice showed decreased production of IL-2 and nitric oxide and decreased proliferation...
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