STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF SERUM-FREE MEDIA ON THE CULTIVATION OF LEISHMANIA PROMASTIGOTES IN VITRO

Abstract Leishmaniasis is a global transmissible parasitic disease. The disease is widespread in 98 countries worldwide, with an annual incidence of approximately 0,7–1 million people and 26,000–65,000 deaths. Flagellated protozoa of the genus Leishmania are the causative agents of leishmaniasis. To effectively combat this disease, to create drugs and a vaccine, it is necessary to obtain a long-term culture of pathogens in vitro. The main requirement for creating a vaccine is the production of a large volume of promastigotes. At present, creating an optimal medium that would support this condition is a significant challenge. There are different types of media used for Leishmania, which mostly require fetal bovine serum as an expensive supplement. Availability of serum is a problem in some parts of tropical and subtropical countries involved in leishmaniasis. There is also a risk of various contaminants in this serum. Several studies have been conducted to replace fetal bovine serum in the culture medium with various other components to reduce the above-mentioned problems. The results of these studies showed that the Leishmania parasite was able to grow and survive in various serum-free media as well as in serum-supplemented media.