DETECTION FREQUENCIES AND THE COLONY-FARMING UNIT RECOVERY OF ORAL TREPONEMES BY DIFFERENT CULTIVATION METHODS

Selected media were compared for primary isolation and detection of or al treponemes from clinical samples. Forty-eight subgingival plaque sa mples from 45 patients suffering from periodontitis were anaerobically cultivated for 2 weeks at 37 degrees C. Of the 9 media studied, Mediu m 10 (M10), which was supplemented with 10% rabbit serum and incubated using the plate-in-bottle method, supported the highest colony-formin g units of the anaerobes. The treponemal colonies were detected at lea st on one medium from 83% of the subgingival plaque samples. The new o ral spirochete medium in an anaerobic chamber supported the highest de tection frequency of the oral treponemes (64% of samples); however, M1 0 in the plate-in-bottle was found to produce the highest colony-formi ng unit recovery of the oral treponemes (median 3.6% of the total colo ny-forming units). This study suggests that M10 in the plate-in-bottle and new oral spirochete medium in the anaerobic chamber are essential in cultivating oral treponemes.