Fluke burden
You want it cleared: a fluke settles into the bile ducts and stays rather than passing through.
In depth
Flukes — leaf-shaped flatworm parasites that settle in the bile ducts, liver, gut wall or blood vessels. One of the three helminth groups counted into parasite burden, and the group that carries its infection-to-DNA-damage evidence.
What it drives
It increases Parasite burden.
Taxonomic edge. Flukes are one of the three main helminth groups infecting humans. Verbatim: “Helminths of three main groups—cestodes (tapeworms), trematodes (flatworms, or flukes), and roundworms (nematodes)—are human parasites responsible for an enormous burden of disease.”. doi 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006393 · PMC9155875
It increases Allergic signaling.
The schistosome egg granuloma is an IL-13-dependent type-2 inflammatory lesion. doi 10.1371/journal.pone.0135360
It increases Liver scarring cells.
Egg-granuloma cytokines activate hepatic stellate cells into collagen-secreting myofibroblasts. doi 10.1186/s13071-023-05863-5
It increases Tissue scarring.
Periportal pipestem fibrosis is the defining hepatic lesion of chronic schistosomiasis. PMID 19825105
It increases Portal pressure.
Presinusoidal obstruction by egg granulomata raises portal venous pressure. PMID 19825105
Blends that modulate it
Each blend page names this pathway and carries the study behind its claim.
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.