No abstract available.
Lymphocytes ; Treponema ; Treponema denticola

No abstract available.
Osteoblasts* ; Treponema denticola* ; Treponema*

No abstract available.
Antibodies, Monoclonal* ; Treponema pallidum* ; Treponema*

No abstract available.
Antibodies* ; Humans* ; Immunoglobulin M* ; Penicillins* ; Syphilis* ; Treponema pallidum* ; Treponema*

BACKGROUND: Syphilis is an infection caused by Treponema pallidum (T. pallidum), and this disease is increasing in incidence. However, making the diagnosis of syphilis is sometimes still challenging because of the variable clinical and histopathologic findings and there are cases with negative serologic findings, and especially in the setting of HIV infection and immunosuppressive therapy. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we specifically evaluated the number and distribution patterns of T. pallidum in the skin lesions from patients with primary or secondary syphilis. METHODS: orty eight skin biopsy specimens with the clinical and/or serological diagnosis of syphilis were evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) using primary polyclonal antibodies against T. pallidum. RESULTS: Overall, T. pallidum was identified in 45 specimens (94%). The IHC of the 22 specimens from the patients with primary syphilis were all positive (100%). Twenty three (88%) out of 26 specimens from the patients with secondary syphilis showed positive results. T. pallidum was also identified in three patients with negative VDRL. Although the density of T. pallidum was higher in the specimens from the patients with primary syphilis than in those from the patients with secondary syphilis, the differences were not statistically significant (p=0.32). An epitheliotropic pattern was more frequently observed in the specimens from the patients with secondary syphilis (81%) than in those from the patients with primary syphilis (50%) (p=0.01). The density and distribution patterns of T. pallidum didn't show any correlation with the duration of skin lesions or the VDRL titer. CONCLUSION: IHC using a polyclonal antibody against T. pallidum could be an effective method for making the diagnosis of primary and secondary syphilis.
Antibodies ; Biopsy ; HIV Infections ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Incidence ; Skin ; Syphilis ; Treponema ; Treponema pallidum

BACKGROUND: We analyzed the positive rates of Mediace Rapid Plasma Reagin (RPR) (Sekisui, Japan) and Mediace Treponema pallidum Latex Agglutination (TPLA) (Sekisui) assays. Positive results were compared to those of immunochromatography assay (ICA) and fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption (FTA-ABS) tests. METHODS: We used samples of patients visited at a university hospital from April 2010 to May 2011. The rates of positive results were calculated with 36,343 RPR results and 5,934 TPLA results. In addition, 237 positive samples with Mediace RPR or TPLA were re-tested with ICA and FTA-ABS. Mediace RPR and TPLA tests were performed with Toshiba 200-FR Neo (Toshiba, Japan). RESULTS: The rates of positive results were 0.47% (169/36,343) and 3.52% (209/5,934) with RPR and TPLA, respectively. Among the 237 sera that tested positive with RPR or TPLA, 76 were RPR(+)/TPLA(+), 28 were RPR(+)/TPLA(-), and 133 were RPR(-)/TPLA(+). When compared to the ICA results, 86.84% (66/76) of the RPR(+)/TPLA(+) sera were ICA(+), 3.57% (1/28) of the RPR(+)/TPLA(-) sera were ICA(+), and 54.89% (73/133) of the RPR(-)/TPLA(+) sera were ICA(+). Only 67.11% of the TPLA(+) sera demonstrated positive FTA-ABS results. However, 100% of the TPLA(-) sera yielded negative FTA-ABS results. ICA and FTA-ABS had a 96.59% positive agreement rate and an 80.68% negative agreement rate. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that Mediace TPLA has a low positive agreement rate with FTA-ABS. Although Mediace RPR and TPLA have advantages associated with automated methods, positive results should be confirmed with other treponemal tests, due to the high false positive rates.
Absorption ; Agglutination ; Humans ; Immunochromatography ; Latex ; Plasma ; Syphilis Serodiagnosis ; Treponema ; Treponema pallidum

This study was conducted to identify the protein antigens reacting with IgG antibodies in the sera of variaus stages of syphilis before treatment, the antigens common to both Treponema pallidum and Treponema phagedenis, and the antigens specific only to T. pzllidum, employing sodium dodecylsulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis(SDS PAGE) and immunoblotting. Before treatment, the most strongly reacting antigens of T. pallidum precipitated by IgG antibodies in the sera of patients were polypeptides of molecular weights 47, 000, 36,500, 15,500 and 14,000. Eleven antigens common to both T. palbdum and T. phagedenis were observed, and antigens of molecular weights 86,500, 68,500,15,500 and 14,000 showed to be specific only to T. pallidum. From the results obtained, it could be concluded that of the major antigens of T. pallidum, the antigens of molecular weights 15,500 and 14,000 could serve to develop newer serologic tests for syphilis.
Antibodies* ; Humans ; Immunoblotting ; Immunoglobulin G* ; Molecular Weight ; Peptides ; Serologic Tests ; Sodium ; Syphilis* ; Treponema ; Treponema pallidum

BACKGROUND: The TrepanostikaTM is an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the qualitative determination of specific antibody (Ab) to Treponema pallidum. It is important to detect Treponema pallidum-specific Ab to confirm syphilis in patients with positive nontreponemal result or at late latent stage/late stage. Currently various ELISA methods for Treponema pallidum- specific Ab have been developed in addition to widely used treponemal tests such as fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption (FTA-ABS) test or Treponema pallidum hemagglutination (TPHA) test. We evaluated TrepanostikaTM, anti-treponemal ELISA test. METHODS: The sensitivity and specificity of this ELISA method for detecting Treponema pallidum- specific Ab (TrepanostikaTM) were evaluated and compared with other treponemal tests such as FTA-ABS and TPHA. RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity of TrepanostikaTM were 95.7% and 95.8%, respectively. The concordance rate with FTA-ABS was 98.9% (283/286) and 100% (272/272) with TPHA. CONCLUSIONS: TrepanostikaTM which has similar sensitivity and specificity with FTA-ABS or TPHA could replace the well-known treponemal test such as FTA-ABS or TPHA.
Absorption ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay* ; Hemagglutination ; Humans ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Syphilis ; Treponema pallidum ; Treponema*

Treponema denticola is a gram-negative anaerobe that can cause periodontal disease. The adhesion of this bacterium to host tissues is considered to be the primary event in the colonization and infection of a host. Fibrinogen is generally found in damaged tissues resulting from periodontitis. The binding ability of T. denticola to fibrinogen may therefore be an important virulence factor in inducing periodontal diseases. It has been reported recently that oral spirochetes can be labeled with fluorescent fatty acids and we speculated that this labeling method could be used in an oral spirochete binding assay. The binding of several different strains of T. denticola to immobilized human fibrinogen was therefore tested using the fluorescent fatty acid labeling method. In the case of immobilized fibrinogen, the T. denticola ATCC 35405 strain showed saturable binding to immobilized fibrinogen. Indeed, all four different T. denticola strains tested in this experiment, T. denticola ATCC 35405, T. denticola ATCC 33520, T. denticola ATCC 35404 and T. denticola OTK showed binding to fibrinogen. The fluorescent fatty acid labeling method thus shows utility in binding assays for T. denticola, different strains of which can generally bind to immobilized fibrinogen.
Colon ; Fatty Acids ; Fibrinogen ; Fluorescence ; Humans ; Periodontal Diseases ; Periodontitis ; Spirochaetales ; Sprains and Strains ; Treponema ; Treponema denticola

BACKGROUND: Current serologic tests for Syphilis(STS) in the blood donors are Veneral Disease Reseach Laboratory(VDRL), Rapid Plasma Reagin(RPR) test or Groupamatic Automated Syphilis Test(GAST) using modified VDRL antigen as screening method, and Treponema Pallidum Hemagglutination(TPHA) test as a confirmatory method in Korean Red Cross Blood Centers. This study was carried out to evaluate the usefulness of Enzyme Immunoassay(EIA) as STS in blood donors. METHODS: A total of 11,335 donors s serum samples were tested by RPR and GAST. We analyzed 138 samples including 6 samples of anti-treponema pallidum panel with TPHA and EIA to compare as a confirmatory test. RESULTS: The positive rate of RPR and GAST in 11,335 samples were 0.68%, 0.24%, respectively. Confirmed positive rates by TPHA was 0.26%, and by EIA was 0.27%. False negative results of GAST were 0.11% and 0.13%, respectively according to the results of TPHA and EIA. The agreement between TPHA and EIA was 98.5%(130/132). CONCLUSION: The EIA results were comparable with RPR, GAST and TPHA test. It is considered that EIA method for STS would be alternative one for TPHA as a conformative test because there was excellent agreement between TPHA and EIA method, and EIA method showed almost same results as that of TPHA test.
Blood Donors* ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Plasma ; Red Cross ; Serologic Tests ; Syphilis ; Tissue Donors ; Treponema pallidum* ; Treponema*