血清学、生化学及对分枝杆菌细胞壁进行脂类分析证明,这些试验对分枝杆菌的分类及麻风杆菌鉴定都是有用的。但这些特征大多数是以体外生长的分枝杆菌为基础进行研究得到的,而目前麻风杆菌尚不能体外培养,加之体内外生长的菌特征不同,所以麻风杆菌的鉴定仍是一个难题根据鼬鼠甲基分枝菌酸脂薄层层析(TLC)模型在体内、外生长时无区别这一特点,启示作者设想用分析麻风杆菌的甲基分枝菌酸脂做分类的标志。作者用TLC将从感染组织分离出来的麻风杆菌、从麻风活检组织中培养 Serology, biochemistry, and lipid analysis of mycobacterial cell walls demonstrate that these tests are useful for the classification of Mycobacteria and identification of M. leprae. However, most of these characteristics are based on mycobacterial growth in vitro. However, at present, Leprosy can not be cultured in vitro, and the characteristics of the bacteria grown in vitro and in vivo are different, so the identification of Leprosy is still a difficult problem. Methyl mycolic acid thin layer chromatography (TLC) model in vitro and in vivo growth without distinction of this feature, suggesting that the authors envisaged the analysis of M. leprae methyl mycolic acid lipid as a marker of classification. The authors used TLC to isolate M. leprae from infected tissues and cultured them from leprosy biopsies