Comparison of Ciliostasis by Mycoplasmas in Mouse and Chicken Tracheal Organ Cultures

Abstract

The cilia-stopping effect of mycoplasmas of human and various animal origin in mouse and chicken tracheal organ cultures was studied. From the results in mouse tracheal organ cultures, the mycoplasma strains tested were divided into three groups: Mycoplasma pulmonis m53, M pulmonis JB, M. pulmonis OK, M. mycoides subsp. Mycoides PGl and M. Gallisepticum S6 showed a strong cilia-stopping effect; M. pulmonis PG22, M. mycoides subsp. capri PG3, M. meleagridis 19729, M. neurolyticum Type A and M. arthritidis PG6 showed a mild effect; and M. pneumoniae FH, M. salivarium Hup, M. hominis type 1-C and M. orale N-C human origin and Acholeplasma laidlawii PG8 showed a weak effect. On the other hand, in chicken tracheal organ cultures, only M. gallisepticum S6 showed a strong effect, M. meleagridis 19729 was affected to a lesser degree, and the other mycoplasma strains showed a weak or no effect. The results indicate that some murine and poultry mycoplasmas showed a cilia-stopping tendency in mouse and chicken tracheal organ cultures, respectively, while human mycoplasmas showed weak or little effect in both organ cultures. In mouse tracheal organ cultures, M. pulmonis m53 treated with heat, trypsin or formaldehyde, and the sterile filtrate of an m53 broth culture showed no cilia-stopping effect. The relationship of the pathogenicity of mycoplasmas for their natural hosts to that for cultured respiratory cells is discussed.

Mycoplasma pulmonis Inhibits Electrogenic Ion Transport across Murine Tracheal Epithelial Cell Monolayers

“…Additional studies will be needed, however, to determine if the inhibiting activity is selectively secreted by mycoplasma cells upon contact with the epithelium. Several studies have examined the pathogenic potential of purified mycoplasma membranes, cell lysates, and nonviable organisms (2,12,19,26). In our studies, M. pulmonis cells that were killed by UV treatment were no longer able to inhibit the absorption or secretion of ions or to decrease the transepithelial resistance of the monolayer.…”

“…Numerous researchers have reported that the infection of tracheal organ cultures with mycoplasmas results in ciliostasis, loss of tight junctions, and in most cases the complete exfoliation of the respiratory epithelium (2,9,11,15,24,39). This study, in contrast, evaluated the electrogenic ion transport capacity of MTEs infected with M. pulmonis and reveals that this organism causes much more subtle changes in the respiratory epithelium than have previously been observed by other investigators.…”

Respiratory infection of lambs with Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae

“…Adherence of mycoplasmas occurs through the interaction gallisepticum and has been a widely used experimental procedure (Collier, 1979;Cassell et al, 1985;Jones et al, 1985) . Loss of ciliary motion due to mycoplasmal activity seemed to relate to pathogenicity and there was appreciable host specificity (Araake, 1982).…”

The pathogenesis of respiratory infection of lambs by mycoplasmas

“…The pathogenesis of several mycoplasma respiratory pathogens seems to relate, at least in part, directly to loss of mucociliary clearance mechanisms. This deficiency may contribute to the establishment of secondary bacterial infections in the lung and its relevance in vivo has been proven beyond doubt (Araake, 1982;Almeida and Rosenbusch, 1994). Numerous mycoplasma respiratory pathogens including M. hyopneumoniae G^ebey and Ross, 1994), M. pneumoniae , M. gallisepticum (Levishon et al, 1986), M. dispar (Thomas et al, 1987), M. mycoides subsp.…”