ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF IRAQI LEISHMANIAL ISOLATES

Abstract

Smears, bone marrow and sera were obtained from 25 suspected patients with visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and 25 cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). Most of patients came from urban and rural areas surrounding Baghdad. Bone marrow cultures were positive in 40% of VL cases, while the serological test was positive in 76% of cases. Parasites were demonstrated in 80% of CL smears against 44% of positive cultures. The causative organisms in Iraqi patients with leishmaniasis were identified according to the electrophoretic variations of glucose phosphate isomerase (GPI), Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), malic enzyme (ME), malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and hexokinase (HK) enzyme. A total of 63.6% of CL isolates were found to be similar to Leishmania major reference strain, while 36.4% were rather similar to L. tropica reference strain. In VL isolates, 90% were similar to the Mediterranean strain (L. donovaniinfantum), while 10% were similar to the Ethiopian reference strain (L. donovanidonovani).