newapproach in cultivation of leishmania major using human urine

ABSTRACT

Serum-free media have been devised for several Leishmania species, yet they tend to be complex and not particularly cheap. In the present work 5% healthy human urine was tried as a supplement to RPMI-1640 basal medium and was compared to 10% fetal calf serum. It greatly aided the growth of L.major invitro, and its maintenance for seven subcultures with five days interval. Infectivity of promastigotes was then tested by inoculation into mice. The lesion was similar in onset, duration and severity to the control group. However the urine-supplemented medium was unsuccessful for primary isolation of Leishmania from infected mice