Elimination of mycoplasmas from the murine genital tract by hormone treatment

Abstract

Twenty progesterone-treated TO mice were infected intravaginally with Mycoplasma pulmonis. One month later, ten of the mice were given oestradiol which changed the reproductive cycle to the oestrous phase and within a week resulted in eradication of the organisms from six of them; vaginal persistence in the other mice may have been due, at least in part, to reinoculation of organisms from the oropharynx, a site heavily infected in all the mice. The majority of the mice not treated with oestradiol continued to shed the organisms from the vagina for at least 91 days. In another experiment, 19 oestradiol-treated BALB/c mice were infected intravaginally with M. hominis. One month later, nine of the mice were given progesterone which changed the reproductive cycle to the dioestrous phase and eradicated the organisms from seven within 2 weeks and from all of them within about a month. This was in contrast to the mice not given progesterone, the majority of which continued to shed the organisms for at least 167 days.