Abstract

SIERRA CALZADO, Lillian. Naegleria strains isolated in Santiago de Cuba and studied using the scanning electron microscope. MEDISAN [online]. 2011, vol.15, n.4, pp. 462-468. ISSN 1029-3019.

Taking into account 4 localities where amebas of the genus Naegleria fowleri were isolated in Santiago de Cuba, necessary techniques for their adequate study using the scanning electron microscope were performed. Previously, those amebas were inoculated in experimental biomodels (mice), which allowed to determine a different level of pathogenicity, a controversial issue in several theories about their causes (some discussed here), including that maintained in their surface invagination (amebostomas or suckers). Thus, the author of this work evaluated the presence (number and characteristics) or absence of amebostomas through such device, and it is concluded that pathogenic ameboflagellates were similar to those that were not. This finding could be confirmed when they were compared with 2 strains recognized in the Institute of Tropical Medicine of Czechoslovakia. Consequently, that result rules out the above cause in the pathogenesis of amebas.

Keywords : Naegleria fowleri; pathogenicity; amebostoma; scanning electron microscope.

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