Affiliation:
1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Division of Experimental and Clinical Microbiology, University of Sassari, Sassari
2. Department of Experimental Medicine, II University of Naples, Naples, Italy
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The existence of a symbiotic relationship between
Trichomonas vaginalis
and
Mycoplasma hominis
, which is the first reported example of symbiosis between two obligate human pathogens, has been recently reported by our research group. In this work, we examined the cellular location of
M. hominis
in respect to
T. vaginalis
. By using gentamicin protection assays, double immunofluorescence, and confocal microscopy, we obtained strong evidence that
M. hominis
is located within protozoan cells. 5-Bromodeoxyuridine incorporation assays showed that intracellularly located mycoplasmas actively synthesize DNA. Our results demonstrate that
M. hominis
has the capability of entering trichomonad cells and of replicating inside the protozoon. These findings suggest that symbiosis might provide the bacteria, during human infection, with the capability to resist to environmental stresses, such as host defense mechanisms and pharmacological therapies.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Infectious Diseases,Immunology,Microbiology,Parasitology
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