CHARACTERIZATION OF A TRYPANOSOMA-RANGELI STRAIN OF COLOMBIAN ORIGIN

A Colombian strain of Trypanosoma rangeli was characterized by analyzi ng its behaviour in differ ent axenic and cellular culture, its infect ion rate and the histopathological lesions produced in experimental an imals. Although slight inflammatory infiltrations were shown in differ ent histopathological sections, no pseudocysts could be observed Grace 's insect medium is better than liver infusion tryptose or artificial triatomine urine supplemented with proline when studying T. rangeli me tacyclogenesis, with a peak of 32% trypomastigotes. High infection rat es were found in VERO and J774 cells. Because of its 100% infectivity rates and adequacy of parasitemia levels, C23 strain is a suitable mod el of T. rangeli biology study.