Prolongation of the Lag Phase of Mycobacterium leprae by Dapsone 1

Abstract

Conclusions

The results of this study support the inference drawn from an earlier experiment that DDS acts on the organisms to prolong their lag phase of multiplication. The time required for multiplication of M. leprae to the plateau level of 10⁶ organisms per footpad was shown to be prolonged for early passages from untreated mice; later, the time-to-plateau had decreased for the passages of organisms from treated animals relative to that for the passages from untreated animals. If the differences between the time-to-plateau for control organisms and those for organisms harvested from treated mice may be assumed to represent the prolongation of the lag phase of M. leprae by DDS, the lag phase appears to have been prolonged only for the first 6 to 7 weeks after stopping drug administration, subsequently returning to that characteristic of the organisms recovered from untreated animals.