A Colombian strain of Trypanosoma rangeli was characterized by analyzing
its behaviour in different axenic and cellular culture, its infection rate
and the histopathological lesions produced in experimental animals.
Although slight inflammatory infiltrations were shown in different
histopathological sections, no pseudocysts could be observed. Grace's
insect medium is better than liver infusion tryptose or artificial
triatomine urine supplemented with proline when studying T. rangeli
metacyclogenesis, with a peak of 32% trypomastigotes. High infection rates
were found in VERO and J774 cells. Because of its 100% infectivity rates
and adequacy of parasitemia levels, C23 strain is a suitable model of T.
rangeli biology study.