I'm culturing Blastocystis from swine fecal samples in our laboratory but I run out of horse serum. Can I replace it with fetal calf serum? Thank you.
B. hominis. (i) LE medium.
There are two versions of LE medium in the literature that have been used for axenic cultivation of B. hominis. Zierdt and Williams (72) used the same LE medium as described above except with the addition of 20% human or horse serum to the Locke’s solution overlay. In the version of Lanuza et al. (43) the medium is modified by addition of 0.5% glucose to the Locke’s solution, which is prepared at double the concentration of the recipe given before. The glucose-supplemented 2 Locke’s solution for the overlay is mixed in equal volumes with fetal horse or calf serum. In both cases the medium is prereduced in an anaerobic environment for 48 h before use.
Glycerol with fetal calf serum - a better
cryoprotectant for Blastocystis hominis
Init Ithoi, University of Malaya
Horse serum is an excellent alternative to grow axenically to Blastocystis. In our work, we want to grow it from deep well water samples and we think about replacing fetal bovine serum with horse serum.
Abstract
The growth of axenic reptilian isolates of Blastocystis in Iscove’s modified Dulbecco’s medium (IMDM) was studied and the morphology of the parasite was examined by phase-contrast microscopy. The chromosomal patterns of these reptilian isolates of Blastocystis were examined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and compared with those of B. hominis and B. lapemi, a sea snake Blastocystis. IMDM with 10% horse serum supported excellent growth of the reptilian Blastocystis isolates. The parasites from all the isolates were predominantly vacuolar, but multivacuolar and amoeboid forms were also seen. Amoeboid forms with rather elongate pseudopodia were also observed. There were some differences in size, morphology, and growth characteristics in the different reptilian isolates. The karyotypic patterns of the Blastocystis isolates from tortoise, iguana, and python were distinctly different from one another and from those obtained with B. hominis and B. lapemi. On the basis of the above-mentioned differences in chromosomal patterns, the tortoise, iguana, and python isolates are described as new species, viz., B. geocheloni sp. nov. from Geochelone carbonaria (red-footed tortoise), B. cycluri sp. nov. from Cyclura cornuta (rhino iguana), and B. pythoni sp. nov. from Python reticulatus (reticulated python).
Article Axenic culture of reptilian Blastocystis isolates in monopha...
Thank you José Ramón Vielma, I appreciate your help. Yes I've been using horse serum since then but as of now no available horse serum in the laboratory. Can I use fetal calf serum instead? If so, will I get the same result?
You can work in the case of Blastocystis with fetal bovine serum or with horse serum. There is a group of Peruvian researchers who argue that horse serum is better. In the laboratories where I worked with Trypanosoma cruzi they used only fetal bovine serum. Trypanosoma evansi or Trypanosoma equiperdum grow when you use horse serum. Blastocystis spp. it adapts well to fetal bovine serum or horse serum. Successes in your experiments.
José
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