Possibility of utilization of serum from cattle, sheep and mouse instead of fetal calf serum (FCS) in culture of Leishmania major

Due to the high prevalence of leishmaniasis andthe importance of the culture method in Leishmania research, and the vital need to the fetal calf serum (FCS), which is normally used in the media and difficulties associated with the use of this material such as the high cost, the possibility of viral contamination and the difficulty of import, the potency of bovine, sheep or mouse serums to enrich the medium in the culture of L.major was studied and compared with FCS. using an experimental method, 1 million of L. majorpromastigotes obtained from Razi Vaccine and Serum Institute, were cultured in 5 flasks containing DMEM medium enriched with 10% fetal calf serum, 10% bovine serum, 10% sheep serum, 10% mouse serum and DMEM medium alone respectively. The number of parasites were counted and compared on days 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 21 and 24. The results showed that the parasite growth in the medium containing 10% mouse serum was higher than others on days 2 and 4. The parasites survival in the medium containing 10% sheep serum was longer (more than 24 days) compared to other flasks, which had no live parasite on that time point. In conclusion, for short time cultures (less than 7 days), media enriched with the mouse serum shows higher performance but the survival of the parasite is higher in media containing sheep serum. However, further studies are still recommended.