title: Toxoplasma gondii: growth in ovine fetal kidney cell cultures.
abstract: Serial, in vitro passage of Toxoplasma gondii (Rh strain) was successfully performed in a cell line derived from ovine fetal kidney cells. Invasion of this parasite into the kidney cells was easily discernible 1 hr after inoculation. The subsequent proliferation of the parasite was followed in the cytoplasm of the kidney cells. Very active endodyogeny and rosette formations, as many as 13 in a cell, were observed in the cytoplasm of the kidney cells 48 hr postinoculation. After 96 hr of incubation, the parasite population had increased about 132-fold. The virulence of T. gondii against mice was not attenuated after 2 years of in vitro growth which represented 100 serial passages through the kidney cell cultures. Although no "exotoxin" was produced by T. gondii grown in vitro, a Toxoplasma sp. agar gel immunodiffusion test antigen was isolated from the cell-free supernatant fluid of the kidney cell cultures which was identical to an antigen isolated from "toxogenic" organisms harvested from infected mice.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000469:parasitology; D005333:Fetus; D005779:Immunodiffusion; D007668:Kidney / Q000469:parasitology*; D051379:Mice; D012756:Sheep; D014122:Toxoplasma / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens