Cultivation of Leishmania braziliensis in an economical serum-free medium containing human urine.

Leishmania braziliensis cells are difficult to culture in vitro and usually require media supplemented with serum for sustained cell division. Fresh, sterile urine is an inexpensive substitute for serum in the culture of 2 strains of L. braziliensis, 1 infected with Leishmania RNA virus 1, and 1 uninfected. In the presence of urine, both the infected and the uninfected strains grew to the same final cell density as the same strains grown in the presence of serum. One strain of Leishmania major was also successfully cultured in urine-supplemented media.