مشخصات پژوهش

Although leeches were used largely by Iranian and Muslims from ancient days, it has been reported that other people since the 1980s, used leeches in order to manage venous flap congestion.The remarkable ability of the medicinal leeches is to reach five to six times of the body weight in a single blood meal and to release an array of potent chemicals with its saliva has led to an unexpected resurgence of the use of leeches in modern medicine (Sawyer, R.T. 1986).The medicinal leech was approved as a medical target for bloodletting capabilities by the Food and Drug Administration of the USA. The direct application of H.medicinalisto areas of acute venous congestion provides a cost-effective and reliable treatment. (Abdelgabar, A.M. and Bhowmick, B.K. 2003.De Chalain, T.M. 1996.Whitaker, I.S. et al. 2004). Powerful vasodilators and anti-inflammatory and anticoagulation molecules have been isolated, characterized and patented from leech saliva (Rigbi, M. et al. 1987. Rigbi, M. et al. 1996) Earlier studies had identified Aeromonas, Corresponding author: Graf, J. as the sole digestive-tract symbiont of H.medicinalis. We studied medical leech of Azarbaijan, Iran. We performed sampling in different ways (from its mouth and gut before and after feeding with sterile blood). Thus, the bacteria from the gastro-intestinal system were extracted. Gram tests were performed. Gram negative,catalase positive and oxidase positive bacillus, and also gram positive cocos were seen. Now, PCR and electrophoresis are done, after checking gene sequences, exact species will be known. So, up to now, existence of special bacteria in gut of azarbayjan medical leech, (Hirudo medicinalis) was confirmed