Rostral Tubercle

The disease name rostrum (scl.) literally means “hole, hollow tube.”

This concept is used in relation to rostrocastrum or rostarlatrum (rastralastrum) - some types of parasitic roundworms related to the causative agents of taeniasis and nematodes. These helminth parasites have a special scolex. From three to four chitinoid hooks are formed on it. They are simply called nematode hooks.

Because of their multiple scolex, they can be compared to true horny julienneds, which is the reason for the name "rostral" (literally jaw, mouth, horn-like). The second name is due to the keratinized tissue at the end of the rostral tubercle. Biologists call these foreign tissues cysticercoid; they are secreted in a special canal that ends in pyogenic pits. Parasitic eggs emerge from the pits and, so to speak, “attach” to those around the organism. Thus, in sick mice and rats, when attached to the esophagus, larval scolex secrete toxoplasma and can even enter the meninges with the blood and fluid.

The rostral tubercles serve as supporting parts, thanks to which the larva is held on the wall of the stomach of a rodent or other mammal. Also, from the rostral pits, neuromuscular tissues around the attachment sites are formed. Thanks to them, the worms manage to stay firmly in the walls of the patients’ organs. In an adult, at the border of the ectodermal and endodermal membranes, a rostral plate appears, on which the rostrum is located. This is the third and largest part of the metacelium. It grows through a hole in the throat.