A molecular and parasitological survey on cutaneous leishmaniasis patients from historical city of Kashan in Isfahan province, center of Iran

ObjectiveTo study cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) for identifying the dominant Leishmania species on CL patients referred to medical health centers of historical Kashan city and suburbs located in Isfahan province in central part of Iran during 2010 to 2011.MethodsFrom 137 CL cases, were microscopically positive, the skin lesion serosity materials of 103 cases were cultured in monophasic culture media (RPMI 1 640). We used the PCR-RFLP method for characterization the Leishmania isolates, by using specific internal transcribed spacer (ITS1) primers and HAEШ as the restriction fast enzyme. DNA was extracted from 63 samples.ResultsL. tropica is main species in 58 (92.1%) cases and L. major is identified in 5 (7.9%) cases. Indeed randomly two isolates were the species characterized as L. major produced ulcer at the base tail of BALB/c mice after 3 weeks but from three L. tropica isolates none of them produced any lesion during 6 months post inoculation.ConclusionsThe parasitological, epidemiological aspect and molecular methods of this study showed that, Kashan and suburb are anthroponetic CL area despite this city located in Isfahan province as an ancient focus of zoonotic CL in Iran.