Laboratory maintenance of Trypanosoma (Herpetosoma) rangeli Tejera, 1920

Two laboratory maintenance systems of Trypanosoma rangeli were compared. The maintenance by weekly subinoculations in Tobie's culture medium and the intrafemoral inoculation of Rhodnius prolixus with cultured flagellates, resulted in loss of infectivity of the metacyclic salivarian trypomastigotes for mice, ten months after maintenance in culture. With the system of cyclical passes through culture-Rhodnius-mouse-culture-Rhodnius, the infectivity of the metacyclic trypomastigotes for mice, was maintained during the three years of the experiment. The number and percentage of metacyclic trypomastigotes formed in the salivary glands of R. prolixus, previously inoculated intrafemorally or intracoelomically with culture forms of T. rangeli, did not show correlation with the inoculated dose, however the inoculated quantity demonstrated a direct relation with the mortality rate of the insects. The results indicate that T. rangeli requires an adequate maintenance system, so that under experimental condition the biological characteristics, normally expressed under natural conditions, are conserved.