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In vitro stimulation of metacyclogenesis in Leishmania braziliensis, L. donovani, L. major and L. mexicana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 1998

H. A. ZAKAI ,
M. L. CHANCE  and
P. A. BATES
H. A. ZAKAI
Affiliation:
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool L3 5QA
M. L. CHANCE
Affiliation:
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool L3 5QA
P. A. BATES
Affiliation:
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool L3 5QA
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Abstract

Promastigotes of Leishmania braziliensis, L. donovani, L. major and L. mexicana recently derived from tissue amastigotes were cultured in Schneider's Drosophila medium supplemented with 20% (v/v) heat-inactivated foetal calf serum and 25 μg gentamicin sulfate/ml at pH 5·5. These cultures produced more metacyclic promastigotes in their stationary-phase populations than others cultured at pH 7·0. Metacyclic promastigotes possessed a short ([les ]8 μm) and narrow ([les ]1·5 μm) cell body with a flagellum twice or more the length of the cell body. Promastigotes from acidic cultures were more resistant to complement-mediated lysis and more infective in vivo than those grown at neutral pH. These results demonstrate that induction of metacyclogenesis by acidic pH is a response conserved across a variety of species of Leishmania.

Keywords

Leishmania spp.promastigotemetacycliccultureinfectivitydifferentiation
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 116 , Issue 4 , April 1998 , pp. 305 - 309
Copyright
1998 Cambridge University Press

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