De Paula Lima Carla V, Batista Michel, Kugeratski Fernanda G, Vincent Isabel M, Soares Maurilio J, Probst Christian M, Krieger Marco A, Marchini Fabricio K
BMC Microbiol. 2014 Sep 10;14:238. doi: 10.1186/s12866-014-0238-y.
Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, alternates between distinct morphological and functional forms during its life cycle. Axenic multiplication and differentiation processes of this protozoan parasite can be reproduced in vitro, enabling the isolation and study of the different evolutionary forms. Although there are several publications attempting the cultivation of T. cruzi under chemically defined conditions, in our experience none of the published media are capable of maintaining T. cruzi in continuous growth.
In this work we modified a known chemically defined medium for Trypanosoma brucei growth. The resulting LM14 and LM14B defined media enabled cultivation of five different strains of T. cruzi for more than forty passages until now. The parasite's biological characteristics such as morphology and differentiation to metacyclic trypomastigotes were maintained when defined media is used.
The establishment of a defined medium for T. cruzi cultivation is an important tool for basic biological research allowing several different approaches, providing new perspectives for further studies related to cell biology of this parasite.
克氏锥虫是恰加斯病的病原体，在其生命周期中会在不同的形态和功能形式之间交替。这种原生动物寄生虫的无菌增殖和分化过程可以在体外重现，从而能够分离和研究不同的进化形式。尽管有几篇出版物尝试在化学成分明确的条件下培养克氏锥虫，但根据我们的经验，已发表的培养基中没有一种能够使克氏锥虫持续生长。
在这项工作中，我们对一种已知的用于布氏锥虫生长的化学成分明确的培养基进行了改良。由此得到的LM14和LM14B限定培养基到目前为止能够使五种不同的克氏锥虫菌株传代培养超过四十代。使用限定培养基时，寄生虫的生物学特性如形态以及向循环后期锥鞭毛体的分化得以维持。
建立用于克氏锥虫培养的限定培养基是基础生物学研究的重要工具，它允许采用多种不同方法，为与这种寄生虫细胞生物学相关的进一步研究提供了新的视角。
