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. 1979 Oct;26(1):375–379. doi: 10.1128/iai.26.1.375-379.1979

Multiplication of Leishmania in human macrophages in vitro.

J D Berman, D M Dwyer, D J Wyler
PMCID: PMC414622  PMID: 500212

Abstract

To facilitate in vitro studies of the immunology of human leishmaniasis, we developed a method of growing pathogenic Leishmania in human monocyte-derived macrophages. After 6 days of incubation, adherent mononuclear cells were infected with Leishmania donovani amastigotes obtained from infected hamster spleen cells or with L. tropica amastigotes obtained from infected BALB/c tissue mouse footpad. Forty-eight percent of the macrophages were initially infected, with a mean of 3.0 amastigotes per infected macrophage. After 6 days of incubation, 59% of macrophages were infected and contained 8.8 amastigotes per infected macrophage, representing 2.9-fold multiplication. Electron microscopy revealed the presence of dividing parasites within phagolysosomes. These observations indicate that Leishmania survive and multiply within human monocyte-derived macrophages despite fusion of secondary lysosomes with the parasitophorous vacuole.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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