title: Novel culture medium for the axenic growth of Balamuthia mandrillaris.
abstract: Until now, for axenic cultivation of Balamuthia mandrillaris, the BM-3 culture medium and the Modified Chang's special medium have been the only ones recommended, but they have some disadvantages, as both require many components and their preparations are laborious. Therefore, we developed a novel culture medium for B. mandrillaris axenic cultivation. Each one of the 11 components of BM-3 was combined with Cerva's medium as basal culture medium. Ten strains of B. mandrillaris including the reference strain CDC:V039 and 9 environmental isolates were used during trials. After testing all combinations, the basal medium complemented with 10× Hank's balanced salt solution was the only one that supported confluent growth of B. mandrillaris. Cell shape and motility of trophozoites were normal. This developed medium is as useful as BM-3 for axenization. The development of a cheaper and easy-to-prepare medium for B. mandrillaris opens the possibility of increasing its study.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias en Biotecnología, Departamento de Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias, Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora, Mexico. Electronic address: lflares@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Luis Fernando
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Lares-Jiménez
authors.affiliation: Programa de Ingeniero en Biosistemas, Departamento de Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias, Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora, Mexico. Electronic address: ricardogamez7@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Ricardo Alfredo
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Gámez-Gutiérrez
authors.affiliation: Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias en Biotecnología, Departamento de Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias, Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora, Mexico; Programa de Ingeniero en Biosistemas, Departamento de Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias, Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora, Mexico. Electronic address: fernando.lares@itson.edu.mx.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lares-Villa
mesh_terms: D059611:Balamuthia mandrillaris / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry*; D008124:Locomotion; D008828:Microbiological Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D008853:Microscopy; D010274:Parasitology / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media
keywords: Axenization; Culture media; Free living amoebae; Granulomatous amoebic encephalitis