Further studies on experimental leprosy and cultivation of mycobacterium leprae

The experiments reported describe the actual cultivation of Mycobacterium leprae on artificial culture medium in a gaseous tension of carbon dioxide and oxygen through sixteen generations over a period of eighteen months. Several new mediums have been prepared and inoculated but no growth appeared after six weeks incubation. Organisms from the ninth, tenth and eleventh serial transfers failed to produce experimental tissue changes in older monkeys then were used several months earlier when the culture which was not so distant from the host produced graniulomatous lesions by intradermal injection. Guines pigs and several varieties of mice manifested no pathologic changes when injected intracutaneously with these cultures. Serological data are givenm as a matter of record. A discussion of the possible mechanism of infection in human leprosy is presented. These studies are being continued

Cultivation of B. leprae with experimental lesions in monkeys

The experiments described include (1) the experimental production granulomatous lesions suggestive of early lesions of leprosy in two species of monkeys by intradermal inoculation of human leprosy material; (2) the cultivation of acid-fast (presumably B. leprae) bacilli from human leprosy nodules on several artificial mediums in various gaseous environments; and (3) the experimental production of granulomatous lesions, suggestive of early leprosy, in two species of monkeys by the intradermal inoculation of cultures of acid-fast bacilli from human leprosy material grown on artificial mediums. We believe the experiments indicate a step forward in the fulfillment of Koch´s postulates for the causative agent in the disease of leprosy.