Ultrastructural Characterization of Normal and Damaged Membranes of Mycobacterium leprae and of Cultivable Mycobacteria

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Abstract
Microdensitometry showed that the membrane profiles of normal cultivable mycobacteria were very asymmetric (outer layer denser and thicker than the inner layer); the profiles of normal-looking M. leprae in lepromatous patients, experimentally infected armadillos and nude mice were approximately symmetric, with a membrane thicker than that of cultivable species. Using 2 cytochemical methods for the ultrastructural detection of periodic acid-Schiff (PAS)-positive molecules (the Thiery procedure, and staining with phosphotungstic acid at low pH) it was 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 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.