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Annals of Clinical & Laboratory Science 39:51-54 (2009)
© 2009 Association of Clinical Scientists

Maintenance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis on Glass Beads

Carmen Maria Saraiva Giampaglia, Artemir Coelho de Brito, Maria Conceição Martins, Suely Yoko Mizuka Ueki, Fabio Oliveira Latrilha, Rosângela Siqueira de Oliveira, Jonas Umeoka Yamauchi and Maria Alice da Silva Telles
Mycobacteriology Section, Instituto Adolfo Lutz, São Paulo, Brazil

Address correspondence to Dr. Carmen Maria Saraiva Giampaglia, Instituto Adolfo Lutz, Avenida Dr. Arnaldo 355, CEP 01246-902 São Paulo, Brazil; tel 55 11 3068 2986; fax 55 11 3865 0450; e-mail hrgiampa{at}uol.com.br.

The intent of this study was to estimate the shelf life of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains, and to observe the loss of viability in some of them from year to year. From 2000 to 2004, 10,015 cultures of M. tuberculosis were preserved by freezing on glass beads at –70°C. With the expectation that the loss of viability might be around 5–10%/yr of storage, 730 strains were analyzed in order to establish the prevalence of recovery within a 5% margin of error. This study shows that 94% of the strains preserved at –70°C on glass beads could be recovered within 30 days. The recovery rates for drug-susceptible and drug-resistant strains showed no significant differences. The growth rates and the number of strains that showed abundant growth before the 30th day of incubation represent important features, since the subculture of a strain preserved for future use ought to quickly produce abundant growth in order to avoid misinterpretation of the tests. Our experience indicates that storage of M. tuberculosis on glass beads at –70°C is a suitable procedure for an active culture collection in a public health laboratory like ours, where maintenance of M. tuberculosis cultures is a complementary activity and must be quick, practical, effective, and economical.

Keywords: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, mycobacterial cryopreservation, library of microbial strains






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