自从韩森在上世纪末发现麻风杆菌以来,麻风杆菌的体外培养在世界范围内作了许多努力,但直至100多年后的今天,这个菌仍然不能培养。1976年以来有学者报导麻风杆菌在无胸腺的裸鼠中比在有胸腺的小鼠中生长的菌数多得多,考虑到无胸腺小鼠和有胸腺小鼠的巨噬细胞可能存在有内在的差别,作者决定用裸鼠的巨噬细胞来作麻风杆菌的试管内培养。同时也使用了那些能产生瘤型麻风的敏感动物如裸大鼠和犰狳的巨噬细胞。所用的方法是1964年Chang用于培养鼠麻风杆菌的方法,即用NCTC109培养基在5％二氧化碳环境中进行培 Since Hansen’s discovery of M. leprae at the end of the last century, many efforts have been made in vitro to develop M. leprae in the world, but it is still not practiced until more than 100 years later. It has been reported since 1976 that many leprosy bacilli grow more in athymic nude mice than in thymus-bearing mice, considering that there may be some intrinsic in the athymic and thymus mouse macrophages The authors decided to use nude mouse macrophages for in vitro culture of Leprosy. Macrophages of sensitive animals such as nude mice and armadillo that produce nidus are also used. The method used was the Chang method used to culture M. pneumoniae in 1964, ie culture with NCTC109 medium in 5% carbon dioxide