The effects of three serotypes of Ureaplasma urealyticum on spermatozoal motility and penetration in vitro.

The effects of incubation of spermatozoa with three serotypes of Ureaplasma urealyticum on spermatozoal motility and penetration in vitro were investigated. Using computer-assisted video microscopy, three parameters of motility were determined: individual path lengths, individual vectorial distances, and percentage motility. Polyacrylamide gels were used as a medium for assessment of spermatozoal penetration. Ureaplasma-infected spermatozoa did have significantly greater path lengths and individual distances than did uninfected controls, but ureaplasma infection had no significant effect on percentage motility. Overall, there were no significant differences in penetration distances between ureaplasma-infected spermatozoa and their corresponding uninfected controls. Our conclusion is that the ureaplasmas did not adversely affect motility or penetration when spermatozoa were incubated with ureaplasmas for 45 minutes at ureaplasma:sperm ratios as high as 100:1.

[The infection of monkeys with Ureaplasma urealyticum serovar VIII]. / Infitsirovanie obez'ian Ureaplasma urealyticum VIII serovara.

The possibility of modeling chronic infection on monkeys by the injection of the culture of U. urealyticum, serotype VIII, was shown. The infection of monkeys with these microorganisms introduced in a single intraperitoneal injection resulted in the generalization of the process, which was manifested by the persistence and reproduction of the infective agent in the organs and blood of the animals for as long as 6 months (the term of observation). Lymphoid hyperplasia in the organs of immunogenesis and transitory immunomorphological reaction in the tissues of some organs of the urogenital system were noted. The localization of infective agents in some endocrine glands was not accompanied by disturbances in their function.

[Status of the fetus and placental function in women with viral and Mycoplasma infections]. / Sostoianie ploda i funktsiia platsenty u zhenshchin s virusno- mikoplazmennoi infektsiei.

Females with viral and Mycoplasma infection were studied for the fetal and placental status. There was fetal growth retardation; disorders in fetal cardiac performance; placental dysfunction appeared as decreased levels of placental lactogen, chorionic gonadotropin, appeared signs of placental aging, decreased blood flow.

Effect of venereal transmission of ovine ureaplasma on reproductive efficiency of ewes.

Rambouillet yearling ewes (n = 20) selected from a flock culturally negative for Ureaplasma sp were assigned randomly and equally to 2 groups. One group (principal) was bred to a ram experimentally infected with a specific serotype of an ovine ureaplasma. The other group (control was bred to a ram culturally negative for Ureaplasma sp. All the ewes in the control group conceived during the first estrous cycle, remained free of infection with ureaplasma, and lambed on schedule with only 1 lamb failing to survive. The ewes in the principal group became infected with ureaplasma immediately after coitus. Ureaplasmas were routinely isolated for all ewes in this group for 50 days after the first coitus. Only 3 ewes were culturally negative for ureaplasma shortly after lambing. Two ewes failed to conceive on the first estrous cycle and 4 lambs failed to survive. Several lambs from the ewes in the principal group were small and weak, and their birth weight was 0.64 kg less than that of lambs from the control ewes. One lamb in the principal group was mummified, whereas its twin appeared to be clinically normal. In sheep, ureaplasmosis appears to be a venereal disease possibly capable of causing infertility and low birth weights.

[Stimulation of hematopoiesis in mice inoculated with Mycoplasma arthritidis]. / Simuliatsiia gemopoéza u myshei pod vliianiem Mycoplasma arthritidis.

M. arthritidis is known to enhance the leukemogenic effect of Rauscher leukemia virus in mice of different strains. As we have found earlier, M. arthritidis enhanced endogenous colony formation in irradiated mice. In this paper we made an attempt to establish a connection between these two phenomena. The mixed inoculation of BALB/c mice with M. arthritidis and Rauscher leukemia virus produced a great increase in the number of endogenous colonies as compared with the effect of mycoplasmas alone, while Rauscher leukemia virus did not enhance the number of colonies. When injected into mice a day before their lethal irradiation, M. arthritidis was shown to increase the survival of mice within 30 days following irradiation. We tried to determine the possible mechanism of the effect of M. arthritidis on hemopoiesis. Our findings led us to the conclusion that the mycoplasmas had no influence on the splenic microenvironment and did not increase the migration of the surviving stem cells to the spleen. It is conceivable that M. arthritidis acts not on the pluripotent stem cells, but rather on the committed precursor cells. If so, the mechanism responsible for the enhancing effect of mycoplasmas on the development of Rauscher leukemia and endogenous colony formation resides possibly in the capacity of M. arthritidis to increase the number and/or sensitivity of target cells to the virus.