To: Billthedrill
When I was an undergraduate the only place you could culture the thing was, yes, armadillo foot pads. I thought they were cultured in mouse foot pads.
In any case, it is a fairly cruel way to have to culture a bug, since it causes pain to an animal.
I'm trying to remember--is the mycobacterium leprae an obligate intracellular parasite? I think it is. It's been a while since I took a bacterial pathogenesis class.
61 posted on
03/01/2015 5:27:23 PM PST by
exDemMom
(Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
To: exDemMom
Mice have too high a body temperature.
Leprosy fails to thrive at normal mammal body temperatures, that’s why in people it’s the cold appendages that are infected.
Armadillos are “blessed” with low body temperature...
64 posted on
03/01/2015 7:31:37 PM PST by
null and void
(As always, keeping a low profile with anything you do is to your advantage.)
To: exDemMom
The media supplier recommends a CO2 atmosphere with 35-37C temperatures. Tube caps open for the first 5 days, then seal tight to prevent media dehydration. Protect from light during incubation. In vivo, they prefer to be intracellular. That makes them hard to treat.
A research at this link has had success stimulating the M. leprae organism with thyroxine containing Dubos medium prior to culture on a Lowenstein-Jensen slant. Incubation time is 8 to 16 WEEKS.
67 posted on
03/01/2015 8:08:28 PM PST by
Myrddin
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