Browsing by Subject "Mycoplasma suis"

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Clinical, haematological and pathomorphological findings in Mycoplasma suis infected pigs
(2021) Stadler, Julia; Ade, Julia; Hermanns, Walter; Ritzmann, Mathias; Wentzel, Sarah; Hoelzle, Katharina; Hoelzle, Ludwig E.
Background: Mycoplasma suis (M. suis) belongs to the group of haemotrophic mycoplasmas and is known as the causative agent of infectious anaemia in pigs. In the last few years valuable insights into the mechanism of adhesion and invasion, shedding patterns and cell tropism of M. suis were gained by the use of new molecular techniques. However, details on M. suis induced lesions as well as the distribution of M. suis in different organs are still lacking. Therefore, seven splenectomised pigs were experimentally infected and clinical and laboratory investigations as well as a detailed histopathological examination were performed. Detection and quantification of M. suis DNA in blood and various tissue samples was done using a quantitative real-time PCR. Results: During the course of experimental infection, periodically occurring signs of infectious anaemia of pigs including severe icteroanaemia, fever, apathy and anorexia were observed. In addition, dermatological manifestations such as haemorrhagic diathesis presenting as petechiae occurred. The most important haematological alterations were normochromic, normocytic anaemia, hypoglycaemia as well as increased bilirubin and urea concentrations. Necropsy revealed predominant evidence of haemolysis with consecutive anaemia, as well as disseminated intravascular coagulation. M. suis was found in all investigated tissues with the highest copy numbers found in the kidneys. In Giemsa stained sections M. suis was only detected red blood cell (RBC)-associated. Conclusion: In the present study, no RBC independent sequestration of M. suis was detected in organs of experimentally infected pigs. Pathological findings are most likely resulting from haemolysis, consecutive anaemia as well as from disseminated intravascular coagulation and subsequent organ impairments.
Microbiological and proteome analysis to gain insights into the pathogenesis of the highly adapted not-cultivated hemotrophic Mycoplasma suis
(2016) Dietz, Stefanie; Hölzle, Ludwig
The aims of this work were to establish a chronic pig infection model and to clarify unrecognized transmission pathways of M. suis. In addition, proteomics-based investigations of M. suis should be performed to improve the knowledge on the host pathogen interactions and host adaptation in IAP. Based on the succeeded and frequently applied splenectomized M. suis pig model (acute infection model) it was possible to establish a novel non-splenectomized M. suis pig model. This infection model enables the experimental investigation of the chronic M. suis infection. To this end, the piglets were infected intramuscularly with a highly virulent M. suis strain. Infected animals exhibited clinical signs (e.g. Morbus maculosus) including the typical cyclic course of chronic IAP. In the next step, potential transmission pathways of M. suis were analyzed during acute and chronic M. suis infection based on these two pig infection models. Feces, urine, air and dust as well as nasal, vaginal and saliva excretions were collected during the course of infection and examined for M. suis DNA by Rt-PCR. For the first time it was possible to detect M. suis in urine with and without erythrocytes as well as in nasal, vaginal and saliva excretions during acute and chronic infections. These results indicate blood-independent M. suis transmission via vaginal discharge, nasal excretions, saliva, and urine. The non-culturability limited the improvement of proteomic-based investigations of M. suis-related host-pathogen interactions. Therefore, we used modern and sophisticated proteome analysis to solve this problem. Blood samples from experimentally infected pigs at different time points of infection were investigated. For this, novel enrichment methods for M. suis proteins (especially membrane proteins) were established. These methods enabled an improved resolution of the protein expression profile of M. suis and thereby deeper insights into the pathogenesis of this microorganism. Despite of the missing cultivation system it was possible to identify more than 50% of the predicted M. suis proteins during acute infection. This identification ratio is similar to the one found in cultivable bacteria. Furthermore, the results of the proteome analysis indicate that nutrients such as glucose, hexose-6-phosphate, spermidine, putrescine, phosphate, amino acids, magnesium, potassium, sodium and iron are taken up by M. suis from the host leading to the high degree of host adaptation. Therefore, gained information on expressed M. suis proteins involved in transport are helpful in the establishment of an in vitro cultivation system in future. Particularly the supplementation of individual nutrients can play key functions in the media to support growth. Besides the M. suis proteome the acquired dataset firstly enables also the quantitative identification of Sus scrofa proteins differentially expressed during M. suis infection. This information can be used to unravel infection-relevant processes in the host in further studies.
Transcriptomic analyses during infectious anemia in pigs
(2019) Mack, Sarah-Lena; Hölzle, Ludwig
Mycoplasma suis (M. suis) is a uncultivable hemotrophic bactreia parasiting red blood cells in pigs and a small range of other animals. It becomes more and more important because of leading to big economic losses in swine industry. M. suis causes anemia in pigs and is accompanied with other immunosuppressive diseases. A once infected animals is a life-long carrier and could infect other animals as well. To date, there is less information about the pathogenesis and reproduction of the bacteria and it is not possible to cultivate M. suis in vitro. One objective of the present study was to get more information about the transcriptomic changes in a pig during an infection course. Therefore, 3 splenectomized piglets were infected with the highly virulent strain KI_3806. After 2, 4 and 8 days post infection (p.i.) blood samples were taken and total RNA of blood was extracted. Microarray analyses were performed with a commercial Affymetrix array. Using microarrays more than 7000 DE genes from infected pigs could be detected. With M. suis in its host cells – the erythrocyte – we had a perfect model showing molecular interactions or signaling pathways in the M. suis infection process. With the help of the Ingenuity pathway analyses service many genes involved in immune and inflammatory response were found. Moreover typical genes involved in anemia, psoriasis and endothelial cell damage could be observed. The detection of these genes verified the depression and alteration of the immune system by M. suis resulting in evading the immune system and therefore in persisting among the organism. Another aim was to go deeper on the transcriptional level of M. suis and to get insights of the behavior of the bacteria at the time point of and after infection. RNA Sequencing was performed on a HiSeq 2000 Genome Analyzer from Illumina an resulting reads were mapped to reference sequences M. suis KI_3806 and Sus scrofa. Moreover, differential expression analysis was performed using the edgeR package. After mapping, it could be observed that on day 4 p.i. M. suis transcripts seem to be overlapped by porcine transcripts, whereas on day 8 p.i. most of the reads could be allocated to the M. suis genome resulting in almost all M. suis genes were found to be transcribed at the end of infection. When looking at the COG categories the group of proteins with “unknown function” (hypothetical proteins) represented the largest group on both days. Also a high number within the differentially expressed genes were hypothetical genes showing that these genes play an important role during infection. Further investigations are needed to confirm that the hypothetical genes also are involved in M. suis replication and recombination. In conclusion, our analysis revealed several thousand genes differentially expressed during acute IAP and numerous altered pathways and cellular processes throughout the course of host response to acute M. suis infections, thus contributing to a better understanding of the IAP pathogenesis. Moreover, this could lead to new approaches towards cultivation of M. suis as well as therapeutic treatments.