Indicators of Pneumocystis carinii viability in short-term cell culture

Growth of P. carinii in culture has been difficult to document in the absence of reliable methods for distinguishing live from dead organisms. We studied three markers of cell function in P. carinii during the course of short-term cell culture, and correlated these with the number of P. carinii present in culture supernatants. The markers were glucan synthase activity, esterase activity and cell membrane integrity. The last two were assessed by double staining with fluorescein diacetate and propidium iodide followed by analysis of fluorescence using flow cytometry. The rise in P. carinii number after 5 to 7 days in culture was associated with increased glucan synthase activity. Flow cytometry analysis of day-6 P. carinii cultures confirmed that over 80% of the organisms catalyzed the conversion of fluorescein diacetate to fluorescein and excluded propidium iodide. The demonstration of three indices of metabolic activity in an expanding P. carinii population has confirmed the efficacy of a culture system as a means of sustaining the continued activity, albeit short-lived, of viable P. carinii.