Use of in vitro cytoadherence assays in the comparative study of the virulence of isolates of Trichomonas vaginalis.

This study describes the use of bromo-deoxiuridine, a non-radioactive analogue of thymidine, to determine the adhesion of 40 T. vaginalis isolates, as compared with the clinical manifestations found in patients. Parasite-labeling was optimized and label detection by immunoassay was carried out. Bromo-deoxiuridine at 10 microM for 16 h produced the highest sensitivity. Once optimized, the assay was able to detect between 3.12 x 10(3) and 4 x 10(5) parasites, with a detection limit of 9.14 x 10(2), which is lower than with the use of [3H]-thymidine. The variation coefficients were 2.65% for repeatability and 3.8% for reproducibility. A correlation coefficient of 0.97 was found between the pattern curves obtained by both labeling procedures. The level of adhesion to HeLa cells was directly proportional to the severity of the clinical manifestations (P < 0.05). Copyright 2004 Springer-Verlag