Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Development of technology for longterm storage of Mycobacterium tuberculosis cultures

Objective. To develop a technology for freezing and long-term storage of mycobacteria cultures and implement into a microbiological laboratory routine practice. Materials and Methods. For comparison between different condition, the media for freezing mycobacteria containing 0.9% NaCl or Middlebrook’s 7H9 medium with the addition of glycerol at various concentrations: 0%, 4.0%, 20.0%, 50.0% (by final volume) was evaluated. To freeze suspensions of cultures, two methods were used: one – using a cryo-freezer (cooling rate of 1°C/min), the second – direct placement in a deep freeze at a temperature of -80°C.