Reduced hamster usage and stress in propagating Leishmania chagasi promastigotes using cryopreservation and saphenous vein inoculation.

Leishmania chagasi, a causal agent of visceral leishmaniasis, requires passage through lab animals such as hamsters to maintain its virulence. Hamster infection is typically accomplished via cardiac puncture or intraperitoneal injection, procedures accompanied by risks of increased animal stress and death. The use of the hamster model also necessitates a regular supply of infected animals, because L.

Characterization of DNA sequences that confer complement resistance in Leishmania chagasi.

Serial passage of axenically cultured Leishmania chagasi promastigotes results in a progressive diminution in resistance to complement-mediated lysis (CML), whereas high CML resistance is seen in infectious metacyclic promastigotes from the sandfly vector as well as metacyclic-like promastigotes within low-passage cultures at stationary growth phase. As we previously reported, in a screen seeking to identify novel genes involved in CML resistance: (1) a genomic cosmid library derived from DNA of CML-resistant L. chagasi promastigotes was transfected into high-passage (constitutively CML-sensitive) L.