OPTIMIZACIÓN DEL CULTIVO IN VITRO DE TAENIA CRASSICEPS: EFECTOS DE LA DENSIDAD Y LA COMPOSICIÓN DEL MEDIO DE CULTIVO EN EL CRECIMIENTO Y SOBREVIDA DEL PARÁSITO.

LUCIA GARCIA; MARCELA A. CUCHER; MATÍAS G. PÉREZ; MARA C ROSENZVIT; ANCAROLA, MARÍA EUGENIA

Congreso; SAP 2020; 2020

Sociedad Argentina de Protozoología

The zoonoses produced by cestode parasites are associated with poverty and deficient hygiene practices, particularly in livestock-raising communities. They cause debilitating chronic diseases that affect humans, domestic and wild mammals worldwide. In particular, cysticercosis, caused by the metacestode stage (cysticercus) of Taenia solium is among the 17 most severe neglected tropical diseases prioritized by the WHO. The most severe manifestation of the disease, called neurocysticercosis, is produced when cysticerci establish in the nervous system. To better understand the factors involved in the survival and development of this parasite, we employed Taenia crassiceps cysticerci, an experimental model for cysticercosis study. Our aim was to identify the optimal in vitro culture conditions for the growth and asexual multiplication of T. crassiceps cysticerci.For this, we incubated cysticerci in three different media with antibiotics: DMEM (A), DMEM+10% FBS (B) and DMEM+10% FBS and conditioned by a hepatoma cell line (C). Also, we analysed the effect of parasite density by incubating 1 (1C) and 10 (10C) cysticerci per well. Number of buddings and parasite diameter were measured. Vitality was determined by trypan blue staining and morphology analysis.In 10C cultures all media produced a significant increase (P < 0.001) in cysticercus diameter from day 5 while in 1C cultures there was a tendency to decrease in medium A and a significant increase (P < 0.05) in diameter from day 10 in media B and C. In 1C and 10C, the highest increase in budding number was obtained with medium C (~ 6-fold and 4-fold, respectively). Finally, in 1C cultures vitality dropped to < 20% in medium A while in 10C cultures it remained > 80% in all media.These results show that both parasite density and culture medium influence the growth, asexual multiplication and survival of T. crassiceps in vitro and set the basis for the long-term in vitro culture of this T.solium model.