@article{15777,
  keywords = {Animals, Armadillos, Cell Membrane, Densitometry, Humans, leprosy, Mice, Microscopy, Electron, Mycobacterium, Mycobacterium leprae, Mycobacterium lepraemurium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Periodic Acid-Schiff Reaction, Rats},
  author = {Silva M T and Macedo P M},
  title = {Ultrastructural characterization of normal and damaged membranes of Mycobacterium leprae and of cultivable mycobacteria.},
  abstract = {<p>Microdensitometry showed that the membrane profiles of normal cultivable mycobacteria were very asymmetric (outer layer denser and thicker than the inner layer), while the profiles of normal-looking M. leprae in lepromatous patients, in experimentally infected armadillos and in nude mice were approximately symmetric; moreover, the membrane of M. leprae was thicker than that of cultivable species. Using two cytochemical methods for the ultrastructural detection of periodic acid-Schiff (PAS)-positive molecules (the Thiéry procedure, and staining with phosphotungstic acid at low pH) we found that the membrane of cultivable mycobacteria, growing in vitro or in vivo, had PAS-positive components exclusively in the outer layer, while the normal-looking M. leprae in patients and in armadillos had membranes with PAS-positive components in both layers. The membranes of damaged cultivable mycobacteria, in vivo or in vitro, and of damaged M. leprae, in patients or armadillos, were PAS-negative.</p>},
  year = {1984},
  journal = {Journal of general microbiology},
  volume = {130},
  pages = {369-80},
  month = {1984 Feb},
  issn = {0022-1287},
  doi = {10.1099/00221287-130-2-369},
  language = {eng},
}