[Lipid composition of cultivable Mycobacteria isolated from livers of armadillos infected by Mycobacterium leprae].

Four bacterial strains isolated from two livers of armadillos experimentally infected with Mycobacterium leprae were studied. Lipids obtained after saponification and methylation and complex lipids obtained by solvent extraction were examined. The presence of mycolates showed that the four strains belonged to the genus Mycobacterium, but the mycolate patterns, identical for the four strains, were different from those of all strains studied so far. Three of these strains contained phthioceranic acids, which were not found in the fourth one. Only the last strain contained mycosides of the C type, while the three others contained a new type of glycolipid. Their content in mycolates and in glycolipids demonstrated a clear-cut difference between these strains, on the one hand, and M. leprae on the other.