Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27925336›Full record

ArticleMicrobiology and immunology2016

Non-exponential growth of Mycobacterium leprae Thai-53 strain cultured in vitro.

Kazunobu Amako, Ken-Ichiro Iida, Mitsumasa Saito, Yoshitoshi Ogura, Tetsuya Hayashi, Shin-Ichi Yoshida

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Microbiology and immunology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Silence on the plate: revisiting the enigma ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2025
    Pooled it
  2. Mycobacteriophage-mediated gene transfer enables in vitro drug screening and in vivo tracking ofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  3. Human Skin as an Ex Vivo Model for MaintainingTropical medicine and infectious disease · 2024
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Kazunobu AmakoDepartment of Bacteriology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi Higashi-ku Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.
Ken-Ichiro IidaDepartment of Bacteriology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi Higashi-ku Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.
Mitsumasa SaitoDepartment of Bacteriology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi Higashi-ku Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.
Yoshitoshi OguraDepartment of Bacteriology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi Higashi-ku Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.
Tetsuya HayashiDepartment of Bacteriology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi Higashi-ku Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.
Shin-Ichi YoshidaDepartment of Bacteriology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi Higashi-ku Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In this study, attempts were made to culture this bacterium in media supplemented with a variety of biological materials to determine why cultivation of Mycobacterium leprae in vitro has not this far been successful. A slight increase in the number of cells in medium supplemented with human blood plasma and an extract of nude mouse tissue as observed after more than 3 months of cultivation at 30 °C. To ascertain whether this increase was real growth, the growth was analyzed by droplet digital PCR, which showed a slow increase in the copy number of cell-associated DNA and the release of a large amount of DNA into the culture medium from bacterial cells during cultivation. These results were supported by electron microscopic examination of M. leprae in infected mouse tissues, which showed that most of the replicated bacteria had degenerated and only a few cells survived. Based on these results, it was postulated that many of the replicated cells degenerate during M. leprae growth and that only a few cells remain to participate in the next growth stage. This means that, unlike other cultivable bacteria, the growth of M. leprae is not exponential and the number of cells therefore increase extremely slowly. Thus, accurate judging of the success of M. leprae cultivation requires observation of growth over a long period of time and careful measurement of the increase in number of viable cells.

Indexed as

AnimalsBacteriological TechniquesBloodCulture MediaDNA, BacterialHumansMice, NudeMicrobial ViabilityMicroscopy, ElectronMycobacterium lepraeTemperatureTissue ExtractsCulture MediaDNA, BacterialTissue Extractscultivationdroplet digital PCRgrowth in vitro

Identifiers

PMID27925336
PMCPMC5299511

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.