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Biomedical subjects

B R Chatterjee

Publications and source records attributed to B R Chatterjee.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1989

Growth of Mycobacterium leprae in a redox system: III. Evidence of growth at low temperature (psychrophilia) and, further refinement of growth medium.

Considerable growth enhancement, largely as non-acid fast, slender and long rods has been seen when incubated at 10 degrees C. Concentration of some of the media constituents have been reduced that has improved the quantum of growth. A remarkable proneness to physical disintegration of the grown bacilli has been seen and its significance discussed. Also, the possible immunogenic advantage of non-AF M. leprae has been discussed. The question of identification is still not solved, and work is in progress.

Culture Media↗
PubMed1983

Growth of Mycobacterium leprae in a redox system.

Mycobacteria recovered from human lepromatous nodules and presumably M. leprae, have been grown in a medium that ensured a minimal oxygen tension at initiation of growth, and an increasing availability of oxygen as bacillary growth increased requiring marginal increments in oxygen tension. This physicochemical environment was achieved by the addition of strong biological reductants in the medium, and a combination of partial vacuum and alkaline pyrogallol in the culture vessel. In addition, n-tetradecane, a straight chain hydrocarbon, and lipids like Cholesterol and Lecithin, all three substances mixed in the aqueous medium as liposomes, were added and found to be useful. Menadione, or Vitamin K3, added to the medium considerably improved growth efficiency. Growth occurred initially as non-acid fast coccoids and bacilli that gradually changed to acid-fast bacilli and globi, and cell-wall deficient, spherical L-form elements. Appearance of growth in any form was perceptible within 1 to 2 weeks and optimal growth as acid fast bacilli took upto 3 months. Both the acid fast and non-acid fast bacilli could not be grown in conventional media, but the non-acid fast coccoids could be readily isolated from these cultures in a specially enriched liquid medium. The problem of harvesting of the growth free of lipid-hydrocarbon substances has still not been solved, as also an optimum oxidation-reduction potential. The growth is transferable.

Alkanes↗
PubMed1981

Skin test response to M. leprae precursor coccoid organisms in a high leprosy endemic area as compared to lepromin.

The paper describes the results on several hundred skin tests on humans using antigens from leprosy derived non-acid fast coccoid organisms, and a mycobacterium that grew out of one of the coccoid organisms. Early skin test response to the cytoplasmic fraction of one of the leprosy derived, non-acid fast, coccoid organism was very highly correlated with standard lepromin.

Antigens, Bacterial↗
PubMed1980

Cultivable precursors of Mycobacterium leprae.

During attempts at test tube culture of M. leprae in our laboratory we have repeatedly isolated a non-acid fast, coccoid organism from lepromatous tissue and skin smears (Chatterjee, 1976). These organisms show a tendency to generate acid fast mycobacteria in test tube passages and in mice experimentally infected with these organisms, and a number of stable, pigmented mycobacterial cultures have been obtained from them that are being maintained in test tube media. In the first report cited above it was postulated that these coccoid organisms of leprous origin were a cultivable precursor phase of the non-cultivable M. leprae, and further that M. leprae was a pleomorphic organism that has a cultivable non-mycobacterial phase (Chatterjee, 1978). Since these reports, further studies have been made on these precursor organisms, as well as mycobacteria that either grew out of the coccoid precursors, or isolated in pure culture form lepromatous tissues and appeared to be identical. This paper deals with the biochemical and drug sensitivity patterns, and infectivity in experimentally inoculated mice, of a few of these non-acid fast coccoid strains, and their mycobacterial progenies, i.e, mycobacterial converts from the coccoids, and a few mycobacterial strains isolated straight away from lepromatous nodules that showed quite identical characteristics.

Animals↗