The quantitation of Trypanosoma congolense in calves. Iv. In vitro culture of myeloid and erythroid marrow cells

Abstract

Myeloid and erythroid cultures were prepared from bone marrow aspirates taken from control and T. congolense infected neonatal and six-month-old calves. The aspirates obtained from the infected animals were more cellular than the controls and it was found that the removal of adherent cells prior to Ficoll separation improved the sensitivity of the cultures to colony stimulating factors and removed the background connective tissue cells and megakaryocytes from the resulting colonies. There was an apparent decrease in the number of myeloid colonies from the infected six-month-old calves, but an initial increase in myeloid colonies in the infected neonatal calves compared to their controls. There were no significant differences between infected and control calves for the numbers of erythroid colonies produced, but the degree of maturation as measured by hemoglobinization was decreased in two infected six-month-old calves at week 13 of infection