title: Retention of motility and virulence of Treponema pallidum (Nichols strain) in vitro.
abstract: A maintenance medium for Treponema pallidum was designed to hold its Eh at the optimum for that organism, -10 to -110 mV. After 100% motile (freshly harvested) T. pallidum was inoculated into the medium, the motility of the treponemes decreased to 80% after 2 days, 50% after 3.5 days, and 0% after 9 days during incubation at 34 C. Full virulence was retained for 2 days, but it dropped rapidly thereafter, and the treponemes became avirulent by day 5.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement; D003470:Culture Media / Q000032:analysis; D008297:Male; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D011817:Rabbits; D013591:Syphilis, Cutaneous / Q000175:diagnosis; D014210:Treponema pallidum / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media