Detection of Mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum in women sexually active or not

Abstract

Genital mycoplasmas play an important role in genitourinary tract disease. The purpose of this study was to isolate M. hominis and U. urealyticum from vaginal and throat swabs and urine from women sexually active or not. Samples were taken from women with (cases) or without (controls) genitourinary tract disease and were dipped inoculated into 1 ml of E broth with arginine or urea and ten-fold dilutions were done. Samples were incubated at 37 degrees C until phenol red indicator changed to color purple. Identification of species was done by polymerase chain reaction technique. M. hominis was identified with oligonucleotides that correspond to the nucleotide sequence of 16S rRNA gene and U. urealyticum was identified with oligonucleotides that correspond to the nucleotide sequence of the urease gene (Blanchard et al.). There was no statistical difference (X2 P > .05) between isolation percentages from vaginal swabs, while there was statistical difference between urine samples. These mycoplasmas were isolated in higher percentages from pubertal girls and were recovered until the fifth ten-fold dilution both from vaginal swabs and urine. For throat swabs they were only recovered from sexually active women.