Experimental amniotic fluid infection in sheep: effects of Ureaplasma parvum serovars 3 and 6 on preterm or term fetal sheep.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of the study was to determine the effects in late gestation of Ureaplasma parvum serovar 3 colonization and the effects, preterm, of U. parvum serovar 6.


METHODS
Ewes received an intraamniotic (i.a.) injection of U. parvum serovar 6 (20 x 10(6) colony-forming units [cfu]; n = 9), U. parvum serovar 3 (20 x 10(3) cfu; n = 6), vehicle (n = 10), or saline (n = 4) on day 80 of pregnancy (d). The lambs were delivered at 125 d (U. parvum serovar 6, n = 9; saline or media controls, n = 9) or 145 d (U. parvum serovar 3, n = 6; media controls, n = 5) for assessment of inflammation and lung maturation.


RESULTS
I.a. ureaplasmas caused histologic chorioamnionitis but not preterm delivery. Fetal lung epithelium was colonized with ureaplasmas at both gestational ages, and pulmonary interleukin-8 levels had doubled in the ureaplasma-colonized animals, compared with the controls at 145 d. Surfactant levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid had increased 8-fold and 2.5-fold at 125 and 145 d, respectively, after ureaplasma injection.


CONCLUSIONS
Fetal lung inflammation and altered development accompanies ureaplasma colonization, regardless of age at delivery.
Moss
Timothy J M
TJ
School of Women's and Infants' Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia. tim.moss@uwa.edu.au
Knox
Christine L
CL
Kallapur
Suhas G
SG
Nitsos
Ilias
I
Theodoropoulos
Christina
C
Newnham
John P
JP
Ikegami
Machiko
M
Jobe
Alan H
AH
D000653:Amniotic Fluid / Q000382:microbiology; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002821:Chorioamnionitis / Q000382:microbiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D005325:Fetal Organ Maturity; D011247:Pregnancy; D011270:Pregnancy, Animal; D011897:Random Allocation; D012016:Reference Values; D034561:Sheep, Domestic; D014509:Ureaplasma / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D016869:Ureaplasma Infections