title: The proliferation potential of promastigotes of the main Leishmania species of the old world in NNN culture medium prepared using blood of four different mammals.
abstract: The efficacy of the in vitro cultivation of promastigotes of four Leishmania spp. was tested in the biphasic Novy-MacNeal-Nicolle (NNN) medium prepared using blood from different animals (horse, donkey, goat and sheep). The aim was to test which NNN preparation gave the best yield in the shortest time for different parasite species, in order to obtain a large crop of promastigotes for experimental work and for antigen preparation. Promastigotes of Leishmania infantum, Leishmania donovani, Leishmania tropica and Leishmania major, the four main parasite species occurring in the old world, were defrosted from -80 °C and placed, at equal numbers, in the 4 different NNN preparations. At the end of the 7th day, the NNN medium using horse blood produced the greatest number of promastigotes for all Leishmania spp. tested, whilst goat blood proved the poorest medium, providing culture results only for L. infantum. This finding may be explained by the fact that Leishmania is a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) auxotroph and horse erythrocytes support NAD-dependent microorganisms.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Bacteriology, Parasitology, Zoonoses and Geographical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece. Electronic address: med2897@edu.med.uoc.gr.
authors.forename: Theodoros
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ladopoulos
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Bacteriology, Parasitology, Zoonoses and Geographical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece. Electronic address: pntais@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Pantelis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ntais
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Bacteriology, Parasitology, Zoonoses and Geographical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece. Electronic address: nitsirigo@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Nikolaos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tsirigotakis
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Bacteriology, Parasitology, Zoonoses and Geographical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece. Electronic address: m.dokianakis@med.uoc.gr.
authors.forename: Emmanouil
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dokianakis
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Bacteriology, Parasitology, Zoonoses and Geographical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece. Electronic address: antoniou@med.uoc.gr.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Antoniou
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003470:Culture Media; D004285:Dogs; D018397:Equidae / Q000097:blood*; D006041:Goats / Q000097:blood*; D006736:Horses / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D007891:Leishmania / Q000254:growth & development*; D007893:Leishmania donovani / Q000254:growth & development; D018314:Leishmania infantum / Q000254:growth & development; D018320:Leishmania major / Q000254:growth & development; D007895:Leishmania tropica / Q000254:growth & development; D012756:Sheep / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media
keywords: Culture; Horse blood; Leishmania; NNN medium