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PubMed1978

[Production of trivalent vaccine against avian spirochetosis].

Reshetnyak's method was employed to produce a trivalent vaccine against avian spirochetosis, using the serotypes Surnevo I, Pamoukchii, and Venets established in this country. The vaccine was tested for sterility, innocuity, and immunogenicity. Its activity was determined via biologic titration on birds. The vaccine was shown to protect birds against the disease when used at the rate of 0.5 cm3. Six (13.3%) out of all vaccinated birds contracted spirochetosis within various periods following vaccination. It was found that the duration of postvaccinal immunity after treatment with the trivalent vaccine lasted eight months (the time of observation). The vaccine protected 86.7% of the treated birds against spirochetosis.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Invasive intestinal spirochetosis: a report of three cases.

We here report on three patients with gastrointestinal symptoms in whom spirochetes were found in colonic biopsies. The patients, heterosexual adults, were not immunocompromised. Electron microscopy was performed on colonic biopsies from each of the three patients. Apart from the basophilic band consisting of spirochetes, the mucosa was normal in two patients on light microscopy and showed mild inflammation in the other one. However on electron microscopy there was invasion of the colonic epithelial cells, macrophages, goblet cells and Schwann cells by spirochetes, and stunting of the microvilli. The spirochetes conformed to the morphology of Brachyspira aalborgi, and no other infective etiology or pathology could be identified in these patients to account for their symptoms. Since the clinical significance of intestinal spirochetosis is uncertain, antibiotics were not administered to any of the three patients and all three improved symptomatically with non-specific treatment. Intestinal spirochetosis, previously thought to be non-invasive and non-pathogenic in humans, may be invasive and may be the cause of gastrointestinal symptoms in some patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Pathogenicity of human and porcine intestinal spirochetes in one-day-old specific-pathogen-free chicks: an animal model of intestinal spirochetosis.

One-day-old chicks were infected orally with two strains of weakly hemolytic spirochetes isolated from a human and a pig with intestinal spirochetosis. These spirochetosis both colonized birds, attached end-on to their cecal enterocytes, induced watery diarrhea, and significantly depressed growth rates. Cultures of Serpulina innocens failed to colonize the chicks.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

PCR amplification from fixed tissue indicates frequent involvement of Brachyspira aalborgi in human intestinal spirochetosis.

PCR procedures amplifying portions of the 16S rRNA and NADH oxidase genes of Brachyspira aalborgi and Serpulina pilosicoli were applied to DNA extracted from paraffin-embedded human colonic or rectal tissues from 30 Norwegian, Australian, and U.S. patients, 16 of whom had histologic evidence of intestinal spirochetosis (IS). B. aalborgi-specific sequences were identified by PCR in 10 of the IS patients (62.5%) but none of the others, while S. pilosicoli sequences were not detected in tissues from any patient. Direct sequencing of products from three of the positive samples provided further confirmation of the presence of B. aalborgi. B. aalborgi may be a more common cause of intestinal spirochetosis than has been previously thought.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Intestinal spirochetosis and colon diverticulosis.

A case of intestinal spirochetosis in a 62-year-old white male is reported. The condition was characterized by chronic flatulence and episodes of intestinal hemorrhage, in addition to the evidence of hypotonic diverticular disease, with a large number of slender organisms in the colon epithelium and cryptae. Spirochetes were demonstrated by Whartin-Starry stain. The serologic tests for syphilis and HIV were positive. Spirochetosis was treated with penicillin G, and the patient remains free of intestinal complaints 20 months later.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Correlative light and scanning electron microscopy of intestinal giardiasis, cryptosporidiosis, and spirochetosis.

Cases of intestinal giardiasis, spirochetosis, and cryptosporidiosis were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained tissue sections from which the coverslips were removed and the sections coated with gold. The technique is simple and reliably provides excellent morphologic detail that is preserved in the deparaffinized 4 microsections. We present examples of nine intestinal parasites examined in this manner and compare this technique with standard H&E staining and special stains with regard to relative costs, turnaround time, labor input, and morphologic preservation. Scanning electron microscopy is a useful adjunct in providing confirmatory evidence in the diagnosis of intestinal giardiasis, spirochetosis, and cryptosporidiosis.

Biopsy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Intestinal spirochetosis in children: report of two cases.

Two cases of intestinal spirochetosis in two children are reported. The first patient, a 7 1/2-year-old boy, presented with diarrhea and rectal bleeding. After the diagnosis was made by a rectal biopsy, he was given metronidazole and neomycin. Symptoms persisted despite a further rectal biopsy that showed clearance of the organisms. Appendiceal spirochetosis was an incidental finding in our second patient, an 8-year-old girl who presented with acute abdominal pain and in whom mesenteric adenitis was diagnosed clinically at laparotomy. The possible pathogenic mechanisms causing clinical symptoms are discussed.

Abdominal Pain↗
PubMed1990

[Colo-rectal spirochetosis: is it an anatomo-pathologic entity?].

Nineteen colorectal biopsy specimens, stained by Hematein-Eosin-Safran (HES), were examined by light microscopy and showed a thick, blue and fuzzy brush border. Without any further microbiologic investigation, this histologic feature is considered strongly suggestive of colorectal spirochetosis. Our study concerned 19 male patients aged between 35 and 68 years, who had no risk factor for HIV infection, but who belonged to these three groups: (a) those suffering from chronic diarrhea; (b) those without intestinal symptoms; (c) those who had a colonic tumor removed. Rectal biopsy specimens were also taken from a control group of 35 patients seropositive for HIV-1. This thickening, which measured 3-7 microns, showed some variation within the same patient but did not depend on the site of the biopsy. It appeared as a blue fuzzy band on HES stain, was purple on Periodic-Acid-Schiff stain and basophilic after Giemsa stain. Silver stain by Warthin-Starry method confirmed the presence in three cases of numerous spirochetes attached to the epithelial surface. Two of the three patients had no symptom. In the control group, a thickening of the brush border, was observed in only one case, but no spirochete by silver stain was seen. The thickened blue, fuzzy brush border of the colonic mucosa is not a specific criterion. The pathologist must be aware of the possible presence of spirochetes that can only be confirmed by a silver stain. The pathogenicity of spirochetosis remains to be defined.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cecal spirochetosis in commercial laying hens.

Cecal spirochetosis in chickens has been associated with enteric disease and reduced egg production in the United States and Europe. This report describes spirochete overgrowth of cecal mucosa in chickens from a flock of 100,000 commercial layers experiencing diarrhea and a 5% drop in egg production. Spirochetes were demonstrated in the ceca by darkfield and light microscopy. Apical surfaces of cecal enterocytes were covered by a dense layer of spirochetes aligned parallel to each other and perpendicular to the mucosal surface. Weakly beta-hemolytic, indole-negative spirochetes were isolated from the ceca on BJ media under anaerobic conditions at 42 C. Chicken cecal spirochetosis may represent an economically significant enteric disease of laying hens which has heretofore been infrequently recognized.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Porcine colonic spirochetosis: a retrospective study of eleven cases.

This retrospective study of porcine colonic spirochetosis was done in order to characterize the clinical signs, the macroscopical and microscopical changes, and the bacteriological results of cases observed in Quebec. Necropsy records of all cases of colitis were reviewed. Eleven cases with filamentous bacteria colonizing the colonic epithelium were selected. This condition was only observed in weaned piglets, and was associated with mild persistent diarrhea and growth retardation. Macroscopic changes were generally limited to the presence of soft to liquid colonic contents. Adherence of filamentous helicoidal bacteria to the apical surface of the colonic epithelium and mild diffuse infiltration of the colonic lamina propria by mononuclear cells were the main histological findings. Weakly beta-hemolytic spirochetes were isolated in 6 cases. This condition seems to be underestimated for various reasons, and it is possible that some cases diagnosed as nonspecific colitis or superficial colitis, in fact, represent later stages of porcine colonic spirochetosis.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Spirochetosis in California game chickens.

An outbreak of spirochetosis occurred in a flock of 75 game chickens in California during fall 1991. Affected birds were weak and anemic. Many had greenish diarrhea. Spirochetes were seen on Giemsa-stained blood smears and in silver-stained tissue sections of kidney, liver, and spleen. Splenomegaly, which is reported to be characteristic of fowl spirochetosis, was not observed in two acutely infected chickens.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Motility-regulated mucin association of Serpulina pilosicoli, the agent of colonic spirochetosis of humans and animals.

Colonic spirochetosis is a disease of humans and animals characterized by colonization of the colonic mucus gel and intimate attachment of Serpulina pilosicoli to the apical membrane of enterocytes. Motility-regulated mucin association plays a key role in colonic infection by the related spirochete Serpulina hyodysenteriae, the cause of swine dysentery. In this study the chemotaxis of Serpulina pilosicoli porcine isolate P43/6/78, human isolate SP16, and canine isolate 16242-94 was examined by anaerobic incubation of each spirochete in control medium or medium containing increasing concentrations of D-L serine or porcine gastric mucin (PGM). The porcine isolate had a chemotactic response towards 10 mM D-L serine, but not towards PGM. By contrast, the human and canine isolates were attracted towards 0.1% PGM, but not towards DL-serine. The composition of the growth medium appeared to modulate the chemotactic response of S. pilosicoli towards PGM; the loss of a chemotactic response of spirochetes grown in medium without pig fecal extract was restored by growing the spirochetes in medium containing 0.1% PGM. Serpulina pilosicoli displays a chemotactic response towards PGM which is modulated by the presence of certain substrate during the growth phase of the spirochete.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Phenotypic and genotypic profiles of human, canine, and porcine spirochetes associated with colonic spirochetosis correlates with in vivo brush border attachment.

A group of phenotypically and genotypically distinct weakly beta-hemolytic intestinal spirochetes (WBHIS) have been associated with a diarrheal disease of humans, dogs and swine, designated colonic spirochetosis (CS). Because attachment of spirochetes to the brush border of colonic enterocytes is a consistent feature of CS, it may represent an important virulence mechanism. In this study, pure cultures of WBHIS obtained from humans, dogs, and swine with clinical signs or lesions of CS were compared with Serpulina innocens using biochemical, genotypic and an in vivo brush border attachment assay CS-associated WBHIS did not form genotypic and an in vivo brush border attachment assay CS-associated WBHIS did not form indole, but hydrolyzed hippurate. Analysis of genomic DNA using arbitrarily primed-PCR (AP-PCR) revealed that the CS-associated WBHIS had a closely related pattern which was distinctly different from that of S. innocens. For in vivo brush border attachment assays, one-day old chicks were inoculated by crop gavage with either sterile trypticase soy broth or broth containing either S. innocens or CS-associated WBHIS. On day 7 post-inoculation, the ceca of sham-inoculated control chicks and S. innocens-inoculated chicks had tall columnar enterocytes without spirochetes, and no spirochetes were isolated by culture on selective medium. Focal to segmental attachment of spirochetes to the brush border of superficial enterocytes was present in the ceca of chicks inoculated with WBHIS, and weakly beta-hemolytic spirochetes with effacement of the microvillous brush border of colonic enterocytes. Complete agreement between hippurate hydrolysis, specific- and AP-PCR assays and in vivo brush border attachment studies confirms the enteropathogencity of CS-associated WBHIS.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Clinical significance of human intestinal spirochetosis--a morphologic approach.

Intestinal spirochetosis (IS) is a condition defined morphologically by the presence of spirochetal microorganisms attached to the apical cell membrane of the colonic and rectal epithelium. Intestinal spirochetes comprise a heterogeneous group of bacteria. In humans Brachyspira aalborgi and Brachyspira pilosicoli predominate. Prevalence rates of IS are low where living standards are high, in contrast to poorly developed areas where IS is common. Homosexuals and HIV-infected individuals are at high risk of being colonized. Clinical significance in individual cases has remained unclear up to now. A review of the literature reveals that invasion of spirochetes beyond the surface epithelium is associated with gastrointestinal symptoms which respond to antibiotic treatment (metronidazole), whereas patients lacking this feature are mostly asymptomatic. Homosexual and HIV-positive men are more likely to be symptomatic irrespective of invasion. Rare cases of spirochetemia and multiple organ failure have been reported in critically ill patients.

Bacteremia↗
PubMed2002

Intestinal spirochetosis in eight pediatric patients from Southern Sweden.

Intestinal spirochetes in humans have been recognized for more than a century, but it is still a matter of debate whether they are just commensal organisms or whether they cause colorectal disease. Most descriptions to date are of adult patients, while reports in the pediatric literature have been scarce. In a retrospective study we found eight children with intestinal spirochetosis. The findings, clinical as well as pathological, with light- and electron microscopy, are presented. In all patients, a 3 microm-thick layer of spirochetes was visualised on the luminal aspect of the epithelial cells covering the enterocytes and part of the gland openings. In five of the eight cases an inflammatory cell reaction was seen by light microscopy and in one patient a picture suggesting intracytoplasmatically located spirochetes was seen by electron microscopy. Despite partial or complete destruction of microvilli, spirochetes were still able to adhere to the enterocyte membranes. In three children there was a clear correlation between treatment and relief of symptoms. In four there was partial improvement and in one child no change in bowel-related symptoms. We believe that intestinal spirochetes may cause colorectal disease in children. Possible pathogenic mechanisms are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Immunological studies on venereal spirochetosis of rabbits (rabbit syphilis).

White rabbits in a family, which were clinically diagnosed as moderately or severely diseased with spirochetosis, were bacteriologically and immunologically examined. The specimens from the diseased rabbits, including affected prepuces, scrotum, or skins with an occasional presence of the spirochetes, did not, however, result in growth in six conventional culture media. Serological tests, including quantitative complement fixation test, rapid plasma reagin card test, Treponema pallidum hemagglutination test, and microscopic agglutination test for leptospires using sera from diseased rabbits showed no differences when compared with those of pooled normal rabbit sera. Immunoblot analysis of the polypeptides from three human oral treponemes and three non-oral spirochetes demonstrated that antibodies against several treponemal polypeptides were detected.

Animals↗
PubMed2007

Colonic amoebiasis and spirochetosis: morphological, ultrastructural and microbiological evaluation.

BACKGROUND: The present study reports on a prompt diagnosis of colonic amoebiasis with colonic spirochetosis by Brachyspira aalborgi and B. pilosicoli; such diagnosis allowed exclusion of other diseases and resolution of the case after specific treatment. METHODS AND RESULTS: A 37-year-old Italian man with a history of several months' mucosal diarrhea travelled to Greece, Romania and Tunisia. After his last trip he presented with an increase of up to 3-5 discharges daily, associated with bloody diarrhea, supporting the clinical suspect of inflammatory bowel disease. Colonoscopy revealed erosions from the cecum to the rectum, and ulcers both in the descending and sigmoid colon. Structures resembling amoebic trophozoites and sinusoidal microorganisms were observed in the colonic biopsies at histopathology and electron microscopy. Entamoeba histolytica DNA was detected by small-subunit rDNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from feces, rectal biopsies and isolated trophozoites. Spirochetes were identified from feces, colonic biopsies and cultures using a 16S rDNA restriction fragment length polymorphism-PCR specific for the detection of B. aalborgi and B. pilosicoli. After therapy, the patient was restored to health. CONCLUSIONS: The rapid identification of E. histolytica, B. aalborgi and B. pilosicoli using traditional and specific and sensitive molecular methods permitted an accurate diagnosis and a specific therapy. It is suggested that mixed infection by parasites and spirochetes might occur more frequently than expected: it would be of extreme interest and importance to intensify clinical findings, and one infection should not prompt the pathologist/clinician to stop looking.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Cloning and DNA sequence analysis of an immunogenic glucose-galactose MglB lipoprotein homologue from Brachyspira pilosicoli, the agent of colonic spirochetosis.

Colonic spirochetosis (CS) is a newly emerging infectious disease of humans and animals caused by the pathogenic spirochete Brachyspira (formerly Serpulina) pilosicoli. The purpose of this study was to characterize an antigen that was recognized by antibodies present in sera of challenge-exposed pigs. The gene encoding the antigen was identified by screening a plasmid library of human B. pilosicoli strain SP16 (ATCC 49776) genomic DNA with hyperimmune and convalescent swine sera. The predicted amino acid sequence encoded by the cloned B. pilosicoli gene had a high degree of similarity and identity to glucose-galactose MglB lipoprotein. Located 106 bp downstream of the putative mglB gene was a 3'-truncated open reading frame with 73.8% similarity and 66.3% identity to mglA of Escherichia coli, suggesting a gene arrangement within an operon which is similar to those of other bacteria. A single copy of the gene was present in B. pilosicoli, and homologous sequences were widely conserved among porcine intestinal spirochetes Serpulina intermedia, Brachyspira innocens, Brachyspira murdochii, and the avian Brachyspira alvinipulli, but not in porcine Brachyspira hyodysenteriae, human Brachyspira aalborgi, and porcine Treponema succinifaciens. The deduced molecular weight of the mature MglB lipoprotein was consistent with expression by the cloned gene of a polypeptide with an apparent molecular weight of 36,000, as determined by Western blot analysis and [(3)H]palmitate labeling. Because mucin is the principal constituent of the colonic mucus gel and consists of glycoproteins that can serve as the substrate for growth and chemotaxis of B. pilosicoli in vitro, a role for MglB in mucosal localization of the spirochete appears consistent with the pathogenesis of CS. However, the presence of homologous sequences in closely related but nonpathogenic commensal spirochetes suggests that other virulence determinants may be required for pathogenesis.

Amino Acid Sequence↗