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Query: UMLS:C0026936 (Mycoplasma)
 14,761 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Mycoplasmas have been identified as one of many aetiological factors associated with experimental or human joint disease. Mycoplasma hyorhinis and M. arthritidis, but not M. pulmonis were found to cause significant release of calcium from murine long bone explants. The resorption process is inhibited by calcitonin, acetazolamide and by indomethacin. Mycoplasma-derived bone resorbing activity (M-BRA) is not an endotoxin as its effect is equally potent in cultures of bones obtained from endotoxin-responsive and -unresponsive mice. M-BRA is a high molecular weight compound resistant to proteases and heat but sensitive to hyaluronidase, lipase, detergents and in part to alkali and acid conditions. The active component is associated with the particulate fraction of the mycoplasma and its yield is enhanced by sonication. The damage to the subchondral bone in arthritis associated with a mycoplasma infection may be caused by a potent bone resorption inducing agent of mycoplasma origin.
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PMID:Mycoplasma-mediated bone resorption in bone organ cultures. 777 9

Mycoplasma alligatoris causes lethal invasive disease of alligators and caimans. A homolog of the nagH gene, encoding a hyaluronidase secreted by Clostridium perfringens, and a C. perfringens hyaluronidase nagI or nagK pseudogene were discovered in the M. alligatoris genome. The nagH gene was detected by PCR in the closest relative of M. alligatoris, Mycoplasma crocodyli, but not in 40 other species representing the Mycoplasma hominis, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and Spiroplasma phylogenetic clusters. The hyaluronidase activity in the cellular fraction of M. alligatoris and M. crocodyli SP4 broth cultures was equivalent to 10(-16) U of Streptomyces hyalurolyticus hyaluronidase CFU(-1). Negligible activity was present in the cell-free supernatant fraction. No chondroitinase activity was detected. There is also a novel homolog of the nanI gene, which encodes a sialidase secreted by C. perfringens, in the M. alligatoris genome. The signature YRIP and SXDXGXTW motifs and catalytic residues of the clostridial sialidase are conserved in the mycoplasmal gene, but the leader sequence necessary for its secretion by C. perfringens is absent. The gene was not detected by PCR in any other mycoplasma. Potent cell-associated sialidase activity was present in M. alligatoris colonies on agar but not in the cell-free supernatants of broth cultures or in M. crocodyli. The presence of hyaluronidase and sialidase in M. alligatoris is consistent with the rapid invasiveness and necrotizing effects of this organism, and the lack of sialidase in M. crocodyli is consistent with its comparatively attenuated virulence. This genetic and biochemical evidence suggests that the spreading factors hyaluronidase and sialidase, a combination unprecedented in mycoplasmas, are the basis of the virulence of M. alligatoris.
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PMID:Spreading factors of Mycoplasma alligatoris, a flesh-eating mycoplasma. 1517 6

Mycoplasma alligatoris causes acute lethal primary infection of susceptible hosts. A genome survey implicated sialidase and hyaluronidase, potential promoters of CD95-mediated eukaryotic cell death, as virulence factors of M. alligatoris. We used immunofluorescence imaging and flow cytometry to examine the effects of M. alligatoris infection in vitro on CD95 expression and apoptosis by alligator cardiac fibroblasts, a major cell type of a target organ of M. alligatoris infection in vivo. A uniform distribution of CD95 in primary cultured cardiac, skeletal muscle, and embryonic fibroblasts was demonstrated by using polyclonal antibodies against the N or C terminus of mouse or human CD95. Anti-CD95 antibodies reacted on Western blots of fibroblast lysates with a band with the predicted apparent molecular weight of CD95, but soluble CD95 was not detected in plasma from control or M. alligatoris-infected alligators. The proportion of CD95-gated cardiac fibroblasts increased threefold (P<0.01) 48 h after inoculation with M. alligatoris. Infection induced morphological changes in cardiac fibroblasts, including translocation of CD95 characteristic of apoptosis and an eightfold increase (P<0.16) in 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation measured in a terminal deoxynucleotide transferase dUTP nick end-labeling apoptosis assay. The proportion of BrdU-gated controls activated with agonistic immunoglobulin M against human CD95 also increased threefold (P<0.03 for muscle). Heat-inactivated M. alligatoris and sterile M. alligatoris-conditioned culture supernatant had no effect. This is the first report of a CD95 homolog in the class Reptilia and establishes a new model that can be used to test the direct bacterial interaction with upstream components of the CD95 signal transduction pathway.
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PMID:Mycoplasma alligatoris infection promotes CD95 (FasR) expression and apoptosis of primary cardiac fibroblasts. 1633 59

Mycoplasma alligatoris causes acute lethal cardiopulmonary disease of susceptible hosts. A survey of its genome implicated sialidase and hyaluronidase, synergistic regulators of hyaluronan receptor CD44-mediated signal transduction leading to apoptotic cell death, as virulence factors of M. alligatoris. In this study, after the existence of a CD44 homolog in alligators was established by immunolabeling primary pulmonary fibroblasts with monoclonal antibody IM7 against murine CD44, the sialidase inhibitor 2,3-didehydro-2-deoxy-N-acetylneuraminic acid (DANA) was used to examine the effects of sialidase on fibroblast apoptosis following in vitro infection with M. alligatoris. While their CD44 expression remained constant, infected cells exhibited morphologic changes characteristic of apoptosis including decreased size, rounding, disordered alpha-tubulin, and nuclear disintegration compared to untreated controls. DANA was a potent, non-toxic inhibitor of the sialidase activity, equivalent to about 1mU of Clostridium perfringens Type VI sialidase, expressed by M. alligatoris in the inoculum. Although DANA did not measurably reduce the proportion of infected fibroblasts labeled by a specific ligand of activated caspases, co-incubation with DANA protected (P<0.01) fibroblasts in a concentration-dependent fashion from the M. alligatoris-induced trends toward increased apoptosis receptor CD95 expression, and increased 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine incorporation measured in a terminal dUTP nick end-labeling apoptosis assay. In contrast, incubation with 200-fold excess purified C. perfringens sialidase alone did not affect CD95 expression or chromatin integrity, or induce fibroblast apoptosis. From those observations we conclude that interaction of its sialidase with hyaluronidase or another virulence factor(s) is necessary to elicit the pro-apoptotic effects of M. alligatoris infection.
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PMID:Role of sialidase in Mycoplasma alligatoris-induced pulmonary fibroblast apoptosis. 1727 29