Leprosy causes
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
A bacillus, Mycobacterium leprae, that multiplies very slowly and mainly affects the skin, nerves, and mucous membranes. The organism has never been grown in bacteriologic media or cell culture, but has been grown in mouse foot pads.
Cause
Mycobacterium leprae is the causative agent of leprosy.[1] An intracellular, acid-fast bacterium, M. leprae is aerobic, gram-positive, and rod-shaped, and is surrounded by the waxy cell membrane coating characteristic of Mycobacterium species.[2]
Due to extensive loss of genes necessary for independent growth, M. leprae is unculturable in the laboratory, a factor which leads to difficulty in definitively identifying the organism under a strict interpretation of Koch's postulates.[3] The use of non-culture-based techniques such as molecular genetics has allowed for alternative establishment of causation.[3]
References
- ↑ Ryan KJ, Ray CG (editors) (2004). Sherris Medical Microbiology (4th ed. ed.). McGraw Hill. pp. 451–3. ISBN 0838585299.
- ↑ McMurray DN (1996). Mycobacteria and Nocardia. in: Baron's Medical Microbiology (Baron S et al, eds.) (4th ed. ed.). Univ of Texas Medical Branch. ISBN 0-9631172-1-1.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bhattacharya S, Vijayalakshmi N, Parija SC (2002). "Uncultivable bacteria: Implications and recent trends towards identification". Indian journal of medical microbiology. 20 (4): 174–7. PMID 17657065.