Resumo

DURAN, Carmen et al. Leishmania chagasi and Trypanosoma cruzi: Trophic behavior in pure and mixed axenic cultures . Bol Mal Salud Amb [online]. 2009, vol.49, n.1, pp.97-106. ISSN 1690-4648.

The adaptive mechanisms between Leishmania and Trypanosoma facing the competence for the nutritional resources in shared environments have been poorly investigated. Particularly, the study of the trophic behavior between Leishmania chagasi and Trypanosoma cruzi could contribute to the understanding of relevant medical situations, as mixed human infections. In this work pure axenic cultures of Leishmania chagasi and Trypanosoma cruzi, as well as mixed cultures (L. chagasi + T. cruzi) were established in BHI medium. Changes of population dynamics (organisms/mL), the evolution of the population’s structure, the variations of the concentration of cholesterol, glucose and total proteins, as well as the changes of the medium’s pH were registered. The generated numerical sets were tackled with univariate (Analysis of Variance) and multivariate (Multiple Discriminant Analysis) techniques. The results demonstrate significant statistical differences between the media of the considered parameters and prove that the “in vitro” behavior investigated in the L. chagasi - T. cruzi mixed culture precisely differs from the L. chagasi and T. cruzi pure cultures.

Palavras-chave : Leishmania chagasi; Trypanosoma cruzi; in vitro culture.