title: Morphological changes of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in amniotic fluid of pregnant women in their midtrimester.
abstract: Ten selected samples of amniotic fluid obtained through transabdominal amniocentesis from 10 pregnant women in their 17th-19th weeks of pregnancy were investigated for the survival of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in amniotic fluid. In 8 cases an antibacterial effect was observed with morphological changes comparable to the effect of benzylpenicillin. When N. gonorrhoeae was inoculated in amniotic fluid at 10(5)-10(7) cells/ml, it survived as an average 2 h longer than after inoculation of 10(2)-10(4) cells/ml. Electron microscopic pictures of gonococci taken after 2.6 and 24 h incubation in amniotic fluid correlated with the growth curves. Electron microscopically there were marked morphologic changes of N. gonorrhoeae, viz. vacuolar degeneration of their cytoplasm with a damage to the bacterial wall up to its complete destruction and lysis of the cell.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatovenereology, Faculty of Medicine School of Medicine, Comenius University, Martin, Czechoslovakia.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Péc
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mlyncek
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Moravcík
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Belej
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lazárová
mesh_terms: D000653:Amniotic Fluid / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D006069:Gonorrhea / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D009344:Neisseria gonorrhoeae / Q000254:growth & development / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D011262:Pregnancy Trimester, Second