Centrifugation and decontamination procedures selectively impair recovery of important populations in Mycobacterium smegmatis

Diagnosis and treatment monitoring of patients with tuberculosis (TB) requires detection of all viable mycobacteria in clinical samples. Quantitation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in sputum is commonly performed by culture after sample decontamination to prevent overgrowth by contaminant organisms. Exponentially growing cultures have cells that predominately lack non-polar lipid bodies whereas stationary cultures have a predominance of cells with non-polar lipid bodies. This may reflect rapidly growing ‘active’ and non-replicating ‘persister’ sub-populations respectively in sputum from TB patients.
Source: Tuberculosis - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Source Type: research