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Isoenzyme and ultrastructural characterization of Leishmania tropica axenic amastigotes and promastigotes

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Abstract

Leishmania tropica is one of the main etiological agents of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Iran. For ultrastructural and isoenzyme study, axenic amastigotes were cultured in a brain–heart infusion medium containing 20 % fetal calf serum, pH 4.5, and incubated at 37 °C in 5 % CO2. Different stages of L. tropica revealed the same isoenzyme profiles after comparing four enzyme systems including phosphoglucomutase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, malate dehydrogenase, and nucleoside hydrolase II. Different isoenzyme patterns for glucose-phosphate isomerase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, nucleoside hydrolase I, and malic enzyme enzymic systems were seen; thus, these isoenzyme systems among the eight systems studied were more efficient in characterizing L. tropica amastigotes. The structure of the axenic amastigotes was essentially similar to that of the promastigotes except for some important characteristics including the flagellum, flagellar pocket, paraxial rod, and the subpellicular microtubules.

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Acknowledgments

This manuscript was extracted from a part of the Ph.D. thesis of Somayeh Bahrami which was financially supported by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research of the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and the Veterinary School, Shiraz University authorities (grant no. 2698)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Basic Sciences in Infectious Diseases Research Center, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Gholam Reza Hatam

  2. Department of Parasitology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

    Somayeh Bahrami & S. Mostafa Razavi

  3. Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran

    Somayeh Bahrami

  4. Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

    Ahmad Oryan

Authors
  1. Gholam Reza Hatam
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  2. Somayeh Bahrami
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  3. S. Mostafa Razavi
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  4. Ahmad Oryan
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Correspondence to Gholam Reza Hatam.

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Hatam, G.R., Bahrami, S., Razavi, S.M. et al. Isoenzyme and ultrastructural characterization of Leishmania tropica axenic amastigotes and promastigotes. Parasitol Res 112, 643–648 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-012-3179-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-012-3179-0

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