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Infection and Immunity, November 2008, p. 4989-4998, Vol. 76, No. 11
0019-9567/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.00667-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Association of Mycoplasma arthritidis Mitogen with Lethal Toxicity but Not with Arthritis in Mice{triangledown}

Wenyi Luo,1 Huilan Yu,1 Zuhua Cao,1 Trenton R. Schoeb,1 Michele Marron,2 and Kevin Dybvig1*

Departments of Genetics,1 Pediatrics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 352942

Received 28 May 2008/ Returned for modification 2 July 2008/ Accepted 28 August 2008

Mycoplasma arthritidis induces an acute to chronic arthritis in rodents. Arthritis induced in mice histologically resembles human rheumatoid arthritis and can be associated with lethal toxicity following systemic injection. The M. arthritidis mitogen (MAM) superantigen has long been implicated as having a role in pathogenesis, but its significance with respect to toxicity and arthritogenicity in mycoplasma-induced disease is unclear. To study the pathogenic significance of MAM, M. arthritidis mutants that overproduced or failed to produce MAM were developed. MAM overproduction and knockout mutants were more and less mitogenic, respectively, than the wild-type strain. The degree of mitogenic activity correlated with lethal toxicity in DBA/2J mice. In contrast, histopathological studies detected no correlation between MAM production and the severity of arthritis induced in DBA/2J and CBA/J mice.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, KAUL 720, Birmingham, AL 35294-0024. Phone: (205) 934-9327. Fax: (205) 975-4418. E-mail: dybvig{at}uab.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 8 September 2008.

Editor: J. B. Bliska

Infection and Immunity, November 2008, p. 4989-4998, Vol. 76, No. 11
0019-9567/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.00667-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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