RESUMO
In this study, the vaginal washouts from symptomatic and asymptomatic patients were examined by wet mount examination and culture on modified TYM medium. Among the 320 examined cases, 10 were positive for T. vaginalis trophozoites by wet mount examination and culture. Modified TYM medium proved to be very satisfactory for the isolation as well as the maintenance of the ten T. vaginalis isolates. The comparison between the growth patterns of all isolates, by counting the number of viable organisms every 24 hours for 7 days, showed that there is a wide variability in the growth characteristics, as regards lengths of log phase, growth peaks reached, generation times, division rate and number of divisions. The antigenic differentiation of the ten T. vaginalis isolates through sodium dodecyl sulfate- polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis [SDS-PAGE] demonstrated a total of 34 bands using 10% resolution gel. The bands ranged in molecular weight from 12-189 kDa. Most of the bands were common among several isolates, while isolate 2 appeared different than other isolates with two characteristic bands, one at 136 kDa and the other at 25 kDa. Also, isolates 4 and 8 had characteristic bands at 163 kDa and 189 kDa, respectively