New horizons in leishmania cultivation

ABSTRACT

Three newly developed and cost effective semi defined liquid culture media for the maintenance and bulk cultivation of the promastigote forms of the protozoan parasite Leishmania are studied. Leishmania major [MHOM/PK/88/DESTO] amastigote forms were aspirated from the wet type open ulcerative lesions of the infected patients and introduced in traditional blood agar based biphasic medium NNN for transformation into promastigote form. Promastigotes were then subcultured in most widely used commercially available liquid medium 199 supplemented with 10% heat inactivated foetal calf serum [HIFCS] + 2% sterile human urine as well as in three newly developed liquid media for comparison of growth. All three media studied were found capable of supporting excellent growth in the absence of HIFCS, an essential and extremely costly ingredient of virtually all liquid culture media