Experimental Infection of the Upper Genital Tract of Female Grivet Monkeys With Mycoplasma Fermentans

Abstract

PLATES VI-VIIM Y C U P L A S M A represents 2% or less of the mycoplasma flora of the lower urogenital tract of man (Black and Rasmussen, 1968; Mirdh, Nilsson and Bjelle, 1973). It has been isolated on one occasion from an inflamed uterine tube (Freundt, 1953), but the possible significance of this species as an aetiological agent in gynaecological inflammatory disease requires further study. The very frequent association of M . fermentans with rheumatoid arthritis reported by Williams, Brostoff and Roitt (1 970) remains largely unconfirmed, although the organism has been isolated from the synovial fluid of patients with rheumatoid and non-rheumatoid arthritis (MArdh et al., 1973). The toxic effect of M . fermentans membrane fractions, when inoculated intraperitoneally in high concentrations into mice (Gabridge and Murphy, 1971;Gabridge, Yip and Hedges, 1975), provides another impetus for studying the potential pathogencity of this organism.In an earlier study, female grivet monkeys proved suitable as an experimental model for infection with Mycoplasma hominis (Msller et al., 1978; Msller and Freundt, 1979). The present paper describes the experimental production of salpingitis and parametritis by M . fermentans in grivet monkeys, by the same techniques. MATERIALS AND METHODSM . fermentans. Two strains were used. Strain S38 was isolated in 1953 from the uterine tube of a patient suffering from recurring salpingitis (Freundt, 1953). After primary isolation and a few subsequent culture passages, the strain was stored in the lyophilised state at 4°C. Upon revival of the lyophil in 1977, cloning was performed three times and the identity of the strain was confirmed as M. fermentans by growth-inhibition and epi-immunofluorescence tests. Strain D1882 was isolated in this laboratory from the cervix of a 15-year-old girl attending a clinic for sexual guidance; it was cloned once. For preparation of inoculum, the organisms were subcultured twice in a liquid B-medium (Freundt, Ern0 and Lemcke, 1979); the second subculture, in 300 ml of medium, was harvested, in the late log phase of growth, by centrifugation (10 000 r.p.m. for 20 min.) and the pellet of organisms was resuspended in 5 ml of PBS, pH 7.2.The concentrated suspension contained approximately 1 O8 colony-forming units (c.f.u.) per ml.Portions of 1 ml were frozen and stored at -70°C, The number of c.f.u. per ml of the individual lots was redetermined before each experiment.

Antibodies to Chlamydia trachomatis, Mycoplasma hominis, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in sera from patients with acute salpingitis.

“…26 In the present series of patients 40% had IHA antibodies to M hominis, while a significant rise in titre occurred in 12%. Cultures of M hominis were not regularly performed, but the serological test results suggest that current mycoplasmal infections had occurred in an appreciable number of the patients studied.…”

Infectious agents and reproductive disorders in non-human primates used as biomodels in animal experimentation

“…This study obtained promising results in the tests for inflammation in the 2009) also studied M. hominis, extracted postpartum from a human placenta in a patient that had developed a fever. This isolate was inoculated in pregnant female Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) and the fetus samples were PCR positive for M hominis, a similar result identified by Møller et al (1978). Mycoplasma hominis is a major cause of fetal inflammation, and also causes premature births and non-fetal pneumonia in nonhuman primates, and these findings provide important insights for the prophylaxis or treatment of these disorders, and their eventual prevention.…”

“…Mycoplasma spp. Møller et al (1978) described an experiment in which Mycoplasma hominis was isolated from a human patient with acute salpingitis and inoculated into the uterine tubes of female vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops). This study obtained promising results in the tests for inflammation in the 2009) also studied M. hominis, extracted postpartum from a human placenta in a patient that had developed a fever.…”

“…Most Mycoplasma species are highly contagious and a number of species have already been described in nonhuman primates, primarily in animal experimentation studies. Since the 1970s, in fact, non-human primates have been used as the principal animal biomodel for experimental research into reproductive disorders in women in many regions around the world (Messick, 2004;Møller et al, 1978;Novy et al, 2009).…”