Cultivation of rabbit Pneumocystis carinii on cells derived from rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

Cultivation of Pneumocystis carinii from rabbit onto cell monolayers was intended. Three cell types were used: rat lung derived cell line L2 and canine kidney derived cell line MDCK, and primary epithelial rabbit lung cells derived from 20 days old foetuses. These primary cells were also immortalized by transfection of the coding sequences for the large and small T antigens of the SV40 virus. P. carinii were extracted from lungs of corticoid treated young rabbits and were purified on Ficoll. In vitro development of P. carinii was assessed by counting the number of attached parasites on cells after staining. No development was observed on L2 nd MDCK cell lines. On the contrary, a development was observed on rabbit derived cells with a threefold increase of attached parasites on the third day of culture. Immortalized cells allowed also multiplication of attached P. carinii. These results are similar to those obtained with culture of rodent P. carinii onto cell monolayers.