Cultivation of the Bacillus of Whipple's Disease

Abstract

We cultivated the bacterium of Whipple's disease, detected specific antibodies in tissue from the source patient, and generated specific antibodies in mice to be used in the immunodetection of the microorganism in tissues. The development of a serologic test for Whipple's disease may now be possible.

Whipple's Disease in an Afro-Caribbean National

“…The diagnosis of Whipple's disease is difficult, with the usual bacterial culture methods failing to grow the organism. Successfully culturing T whipplei with a different approach, using human fibroblast cell line (HEL) has been reported (11). The organism was shown to be slow growing with a very long doubling time.…”

A case of Noonan syndrome and Whipple’s disease in the same patient

“…After the discovery of PAS staining in 1949, the detection of bacteria in macrophages in 1961 further contributed to our understanding of WD [4,11,12] . However, the only specific diagnostic tests for WD include determining the presence of T. whipplei DNA through molecular amplification of the 16S rRNA of T. whipplei by polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) and cell culture of the organism [13][14][15] . Subsequently, this finding led to electron microscopy, which in turn led to DNA testing for T. whipplei.…”

Enfermedad de Whipple: Dos nuevos casos de una enfermedad infradiagnosticada

“…En 1961 se demostró que la bacteria implicada en la enfermedad de Whipple es un bacilo con forma de hoz que se tiñe con las tinciones de PAS, Gram, y Giemsa. El microorganismo causal se caracterizó molecularmente en 1991 mediante la reacción en cadena de la polimerasa y en el año 2000 se ha logrado cultivar en células HLE (línea celular de fibroblastos humanos) (4). Predomina en varones de raza blanca entre los 40-50 años (5)(6)(7).…”