title: Differential Effects of Two Widely Used Solvents, DMSO and Ethanol, on the Growth and Recovery ofTrypanosoma cruziEpimastigotes in Culture.
abstract: Trypanosoma cruziis the etiological agent of Chagas disease. Epimastigote forms ofT. cruzican be readily cultured in axenic conditions. Ethanol and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) are commonly used solvents employed as vehicles for hydrophobic compounds. In order to produce a reference plot of solvent dependent growth inhibition forT. cruziresearch, the growth of epimastigotes was analyzed in the presence of different concentrations of ethanol (0.1-4.0%) and DMSO (0.5-7.5%). The ability of the parasites to resume growth after removal of these solvents was also examined. As expected, both ethanol and DMSO produced a dose-dependent inhibition of cellular growth. Parasites could recover normal growth after 9 days in up to 2% ethanol or 5% DMSO. Since DMSO was better tolerated than ethanol, it is thus recommended to prefer DMSO over ethanol in the case of a similar solubility of a given compound.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología Molecular y Biotecnología, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 70-228, CP 04510, Ciudad de México, México.
authors.forename: Ana María
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Cevallos
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología Molecular y Biotecnología, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 70-228, CP 04510, Ciudad de México, México.
authors.forename: Juliana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Herrera
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología Molecular y Biotecnología, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 70-228, CP 04510, Ciudad de México, México.
authors.forename: Imelda
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: López-Villaseñor
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología Molecular y Biotecnología, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 70-228, CP 04510, Ciudad de México, México.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hernández
mesh_terms: D004121:Dimethyl Sulfoxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000378:metabolism*; D006131:Growth Inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism*; D012997:Solvents / Q000378:metabolism*; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development*
chemical_list: D006131:Growth Inhibitors; D012997:Solvents; D000431:Ethanol; D004121:Dimethyl Sulfoxide
keywords: DMSO; Trypanosoma cruzi; drug screening; ethanol; kinetoplastidia; solvent