Spirochetes

Spirochetes are a phylum of fine, spirally wound bacteria. They usually reach a size of 5–250 μm (sometimes up to 500 μm  ). It does not stain very well with conventional bacteriological techniques.

distinguish the following genera of spirochetes:


 * Borrelia ;
 * Leptospira ;
 * Treponema.

Genus Borrelia
Representatives of the genus Borellia are spiral, motile bacteria that are difficult to cultivate on artificial culture media. It dyes well with aniline dyes. They parasitize on humans and animals and their intermediate hosts are arthropods.

Borrelia hermsii
Borrelia hermsii is the cause of recurrent fever, which is mediated by ticks or lice.

Borrelia burgdorferi

Borrelia burgdorferi
More detailed information can be found on the Borrelia burgdorferi website .

Borrelia burgdorferi is a long, spirally coiled bacterium of 4-30 μm  . It causes multiorgan involvement - Lyme disease. Its vectors are infected ticks. Because it is microaerophilic, it requires a complex culture medium (N-acetylglucosamines, amino acids, vitamins, nucleotides). Its generation time is relatively long, namely 12 hours  .

Borrelia recurrentis
Borrelia recurrentis is up to 30 μm long, the bacterium is coiled up to 5–10 irregular threads It is the cause of recurrent fever as well as Borrelia hermsii. The carrier is infected with lice. The moment it multiplies in the host, a fever develops. The fever subsides after a few days. After about 3-10 days , recurrence occurs (hence its name). A suitable antibiotic is tetracycline.

Genus Leptospira
The genus Leptospira includes spiral, motile bacteria that feed saprophytically or parasitically. They parasitize mainly on animals, they infect humans exceptionally. If an infection occurs, then it mainly affects people working with animals ( anthropozoonosis ).

Leptospira interrogans

Leptospira biflexa
Leptospira biflexa are saprophytic bacteria living in moist soil.

Leptospira interrogans
Leptospira interrogans is a type of bacteria that spreads to all tissues, damages the endothelium, causing hemorrhage and jaundice. It is obligatorily aerobic. Bacteriologists are considering dividing it into 7 species , which would be related to clinical units. Pathogenicity factors probably include bacterial toxins, cytotoxic factors such as phospholipases, etc. Leptospira icterohaemorrhagiae is the cause of Weil's disease. It grows well in cultures with bovine albumin. Generation time is long. It lasts approximately 7 to 16 hours  .

Affected skin by tropical frambezia

Genus Treponema
The genus Treponema includes spiral motile bacteria, which measure 5–20 μm and have regular threads  . It includes both pathogenic and non-pathogenic species (anaerobic species). Non-pathogenic species occur, for example, in the oral cavity and can trigger a "false alarm" precisely because of their antigenic relationship to pathogens. It has a very long cultivation time in the range of 10 to 30 hours (the longest of the spirochet strain)  .

Treponema pertenue
Treponema pertenue is the causative agent of tropical frambezia. It is characterized by difficult differentiation from Treponemy pallidum and sensitivity to penicillin treatment.

Treponema carateum
Treponema pallidum

Treponema carateum occurs predominantly in America and causes a chronic skin condition called pint. The disease is treated with penicillin.

Treponema pallidum
See the Treponema pallidum page for more information .

Treponema pallidum is indistinguishable in shape and size from other species. It causes a disease called syphilis. It does not grow in culture media or chicken embryos, so intratesticular inoculation (rabbit testes) is used for cultivation. It is very sensitive to external influences.

Leptospira summary video
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYHbQIy-AFY

Reference

 * 1) BEDNÁŘ, Marek, Andrej SOUČEK and Věra FRAŇKOVÁ, et al. Medical microbiology: Bacteriology, virology, parasitology. 1st edition. Prague: Marvil, 1999. 558 pp.  ISBN 8023802976.

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