On top of this, the larvae don’t like oxygen, so they change the metabolism of the muscle cell. Not only can the worm hide out from the immune system by hanging out in your cells, but it can also steal route a steady supply of nutrients to itself. One of the ways a worm modifies a muscle cell “according to its own requirements” is by stimulating the growth of blood vessels around the cell. spiralis and the nurse cell on Wikipedia: “This nematode is a multi-cellular parasite that lives within a single muscle cell, which it modifies according to its own requirements.” spiralis has to perform some major contortions (spiralis, get it?) to fit inside. Skeletal muscle cells are some of the biggest cells in your body, but T. It’s no surprise they kill off most of the cells they invade. Relative to those cells, though, they’re pretty big. spiralis is “little,” I mean that its larvae can fit inside cells. Invaded cells usually die, except for skeletal muscle cells, where these little guys like to settle down.īy the way, when I say T. Once in the blood or lymph, they can travel around the entire body, entering cells. These cysts are actually repurposed muscle cells that scientists call “nurse cells.” Once the worms have broken out of their nurse cells, they mature and then mate in the small intestine, producing larvae who dig their way out of the intestine and into the blood or lymphatic system. spiralis, digestive enzymes in the stomach and small intestine free the worms from the cysts in which they live. When a human eats undercooked meat infected with T. Whether their infection is deadly or has no symptoms, these worms do some incredible things once you’ve eaten them. There’s a delicate balance between using host resources and keeping the host alive. This is one of those cool things about infectious diseases: pathogens have evolved to survive, and they aren’t going to survive too long if their host is dead. Of the infections that do occur only about 5% are fatal, and many cause no symptoms at all. spiralis infection, also called trichinosis or trichinellosis, is not very common anymore, but it can make you sick, with a range of symptoms from stomach pain to problems with coordination or breathing. spiralis, it makes sense to cook that pork until it’s well done. Cooking kills these worms, though, so if there’s a chance your pork is infected with T. spiralis infects most meat-eating animals, including us humans it just happens to be more common in pigs because of the way domestic pigs are fed (you can feed them anything, including garbage). People worry about undercooked pork because of a parasitic worm called Trichinella spiralis. This belief is based on some fun science that is especially dear to my parasitologist heart (in the lab, I study these guys). I don’t know if it was the recipe or our technique, but the chops were chewy and dry.īut, hey, dry pork chops are almost the rule, right? Melissa is evidence that some people don’t even know they can be tender and moist, and maybe you’ve heard that pork needs to be cooked well done. While I was moderately successful in not getting injured, I was much less successful in not ruining dinner. On the injury front, I did burn my fingers moving a hot roasting pan in the sink but (for once) didn’t end up with any blisters. Our attempt at making dinner had mixed results. I was hoping for some juicy pork chops like my dad used to make. I am a huge fan of Smitten Kitchen, pork chops, cider, and horseradish (not so much dill, but oh well), so this sounded good. So I was excited last weekend when my boyfriend and I decided to try a recipe for Pork Chops with Cider, Horseradish, and Dill from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, by Deb Perelman. She was shocked by my dad’s dinner: “Wait, they aren’t always dry?” While she loved to hear Peter Brady talk about them, pork chops were her least favorite meal. When I was twelve or thirteen, my best friend, Melissa, came over for a pork chop dinner. My dad is a great cook, and he used to make pork chops for dinner a lot. I am spoiled when it comes to pork chops. By Monica Mugnier Porkchops with Cider, Horseradish, and Dill.
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