Culture Procedures for Blood and Tissue Parasites

Culture procedures have been developed for a number of blood and tissue parasites, but these procedures are used primarily in research. The culturing of Leishmania spp. and Trypanosoma cruzi may be helpful for diagnosis, and the procedures are easy to use. 

Biopsy or blood specimens may be cultured for Leishmania spp. or T. cruzi with Novy-MacNeal-Nicolle (NNN) medium. Biopsy specimens are ground in a small amount of saline. Biopsies from skin lesions or other tissues which may contain bacteria may have penicillin (0.1 ml of 1,000 U/ml) added to the medium with the inoculum. The inoculum is 1 drop of ground tissue or blood. Incubate the culture at room temperature (22°C), and at days 3 and 7, examine a direct mount of liquid from the bottom of the slant at x400 magnification. These cultured organisms are potentially infective for humans. 

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