Table 2.

Examples of microsporidia cultivated in animal cell culture systems different from the class or group of the apparent natural host

Characteristics of the animal cell cultures			Characteristics of the microsporidia		Microsporidia in animal cell culture		Reference
Type of culture	Species	Tissue origin	Species	Normal host	Initiating infection in vitro	Microsporidia growth
Cell line: FHM, epithelial-  like	Fathead  minnow	Connective tissue  and muscle	Encephalitozoon   cuniculi	Mammals;  including  humans	Spores from unspecified  mammalian origin (inoculation)	Spore development	Bedrnik and Vavra (1972)
Primary culture: epithelial-  like	Rainbow  trout	Kidney	Enterocytozoon   bienusi	Mammals;  including  humans	Spores from human duodenal  biopsies (inoculation)	Spore development in  host cell cytoplasm	Desportes-Livage et al. (1996)
Cell line: ECACC  90100401, epithelial-like	Mosquito	Larvae	Glugea sp.	Fish; various  species	Spores from infected fish  (inoculation)	Mature spores within  72 h post-infection	Lores et al. (2003)
Cell line: RK13, epithelial-  like	Rabbit	Kidney	Brachiola   algerae	Insect; but can  infect humans	Spores isolated from mosquito  (inoculation)	Mature spores within  72 h post-infection	Lowman et al. (2000)
Cell line: MRC-5, fibroblasts	Human	Lung	Tubulinosema   ratisbonesis	Fruit flies	Spores isolated from fruit flies  (inoculation)	Mature spores within  72 h post-infection	Franzen et al. (2005a)