Nmc. Bleuminkpluym et al., DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TAYLORELLA-EQUIGENITALIS STRAINS IN THEIR INVASION OF AND REPLICATION IN CULTURED-CELLS, Clinical and diagnostic laboratory immunology, 3(1), 1996, pp. 47-50
The ability of Taylorella equigenitalis, the causative agent of contag
ious equine metritis, to invade and replicate in equine derm cells was
studied, The kinetics of invasion and replication were determined for
four T. equigenitalis strains, On the basis of these experiments, a s
impler assay in which the invasive as well as the replicative properti
es of a particular strain could be determined was developed. This assa
y was used to characterize 32 strains, which had previously been typed
by field inversion gel electrophoresis of genomic restriction fragmen
ts. The invasiveness of T. equigenitalis strains ranged from 3 to 0.01
5 bacteria per cell and seemed to be associated with the contagiousnes
s of the infection. The replication index (number of intracellular bac
teria per cell at 24 h after inoculation divided by the number of intr
acellular bacteria per cell at 4 h after inoculation) varied from 1 to
857 and seemed to be associated with the severity of the symptoms of
contagious equine metritis, There was no association between the invas
iveness and the replication index of the strains, nor was there an ass
ociation of invasion and replication with field inversion gel electrop
horesis grouping.