Demonstration of extracellular material at the surface of pathogenic T. pallidum cells.

The influence of different sera on the in vitro immobilisation of Percoll purified Treponema pallidum, Nichols strain.

“…In table 2 it is shown that the treponemes which were pre-incubated in BRM in both pre-incubation steps were immobilised after 2 h. The same result was noted for treponemes which were pre-incubated with NRS in the first and with BRM in the second pre-incubation step. However, after preincubation of the purified treponemes with heat-inactivated NRS in both pre-incubations a delay in the immobilisation was observed.…”

Growth and subculture of pathogenic T. pallidum (Nichols strain) in BHK-21 cultured tissue cells.

“…Using few cultured cells (+2 monolayer confluency) provides treponemal cell counts that are consistent and reproducible. Adherence to tissue cells may be due to the extracellular slime layer on the surface of pathogenic T. pallidum cells as demonstrated by Zeigler, Jones, Jones, and Kubica (1976). In this study an extracellular slime layer was not observed on two nonpathogenic treponemes (Treponema refringens biotype Nichols and Treponema phagedenis biotype reiterii).…”

Immunity in syphilis. Studies in active immunity.

“…Moreover, the greatest care was taken to avoid denaturation of labile antigenic materials during harvesting and preparation, which were carried out at 4°C. Recent work, therefore, by Zeigler, Jones, Jones, and Kubica (1976) is of considerable interest in that they have shown the presence of an extra-cellular slime layer on the surface of T. pallidum (Nichols pathogenic strain), a layer which is absent from the non-pathogenic treponemes, T. refringens biotype Nichols and T. phagedenis biotype reiterii.…”