Culture and Propagation of Microsporidia

Over the years, the cultivation of microsporidia in vitro has served a critical role in studying the life cycle, metabolism, and pathogenesis of these parasites. Culture isolation has served as an important addition to the diagnosis of infection in human microsporidiosis and to establishing repositories of isolates to be used for antigenic, molecular, biochemical, and epidemiological studies. In vitro propagation of fish microsporidia has, in general, resulted in limited success compared to parasites of insect or mammalian origin. Several species of microsporidia of mammalian origin have been stably cultured in vitro. Once microsporidian cultures have been established, maintenance and cryopreservation are relatively simple processes. Isolates deposited in culture collections are in fact "biological standards" as they are key components of comparative studies. Thus, such collections, known as biological resource centers (BRC), have contributed significantly to the development of scientific research by making reference cultures available to the wider scientific community.