Abstract
Leishmania parasite has two types of hosts. One is vertebrate and the other is invertebrate (insect) The parasite alternates its hosts The vertebrate hosts include mainly man and some other vertebrates such as dogs, rats, gerbils, lizards and others ; invertebrates hosts are sand flies of the genus Phlebotomus in the old world, and Lutzomyia of the new world. Leishmania assumes different morphology and biochemistry in its two types of hosts. Therefore, when it changes host it must go through series of changes in order to fit its new host when it is in man it is of amastigote shape residing in the macrophages cells of human blood. When female sandflies bite Leishmania infected man, it takes a blood meal with macrophages containing amastigotes When blood reaches mid-gut of the insect amastigotes change to promastigotes, which soon multiply by longitudinal binary fission into the infective promastigote. These begin to move forward to pharynx and fore gut in general preparing to move to another host. Leishmania in insect stomach has different shapes, long and flagellated, short and flagellated in addition to crescent-shaped and flagellated broad-shaped. These are all stages through its changes from amastigote to the infective promastigote, which will move eventually to the head of the female sandfly. The aim of this study is to know the growth and development of Leishmania in the sand fly.
Article Type
Article
How to Cite this Article
Al-Mashhdani, Wedad Joma Hamed
(2006)
"Growth and development of Leishmania in its insect Host,"
Baghdad Science Journal: Vol. 3:
Iss.
4, Article 2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21123/bsj.2006.738
