Application of diffusion chamger technic to the cultivation of Mycobacterium lepraemurium. I. In vivo studies.

Numerous studies have so far been conducted on the cultivation of Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepraemurium. However, no media-bound method of cultivation has been established. A number of investigators have reported that M. lepraemurium may be cultivated by cell culture technics. The method employed by Chang (1. 2. 3 ), Chang and Neikirk (4), Chang, Anderson and Vaituzis (~), in which mouse peritoneal macrophages were employed, may be said to have contributed much to progress in the cultivation of M. lepraemurium. In the present study M. lepraemurium enclosed in diffusion chambers implanted in" the mouse peritoneal cavity gave evidence of in vivo extracellular growth. Additional studies observed the fate of M. lepraemurium when enclosed in diffusion chambers with either mouse peritoneal macrophages or LBu cells, which are the mouse stable strain cells.