Leishmaniasis is the result of infection with Leishmania species. The
disease is considered as one of the important health problems in 82 countries.
Humans and animals (either domestic or wild) are infected by Leishmania,
so they remain as the source of the infection. There are some studies
on African volunteer reptilian Leishmania immunization and there is a
study on using of lizard Leishmania antigen for mice immunization in lran
collaborated with WHO. Comparative study on Lizard Leishmania and L.
major promastigotes by electron microscope is the aim of this research.
Leishmania major (MRHO/R64/Nadim 1) and lizard Leishmania
promastigotes have been mass cultured, collected by centrifugation and
washed by PBS buffer three times, and the ultra structural features of both
parasites promastigotes were observed by transmission electron microscope.
Their subpelicular microtubules are identical and there are differences in two
parasites in respect of measurement of cytoplasmic membrane thickness and
distance between kinetoplast and flagella. We could not find golgi apparatus
in lizard Leishmania.
