Creation of a new synthetic medium for culturing Helicobacter pylori.

We developed a scheme of consecutive replacement of complex components of a known Brucella medium containing peptones and blood with simple analogs and created a synthetic medium for Helicobacter pylori culturing. H. pylori cells require hemic iron for their growth; an appreciable increment in biomass was ensured by hemoglobin, but not simpler hemocontaining compounds (hemin and cytochrome C). Glutamine (20 g/liter) was used as the main nitrogen-containing component, and other amino acids were added in trace amounts. Adhesion was provided by adding agarose gel (0.1%) also promoting the increase in biomass. The proposed medium of a certain chemical composition differs from the known foreign analogs by the presence of hemocontaining component (hemoglobin), short period of exponential growth, and appreciable accumulation of cell protein.