New insights into Whipple's disease and Tropheryma whipplei infections.

Whipple's disease is a rare multi-systemic disease associated with the ubiquitous environmental bacterium Tropheryma whipplei. Over the last 10 years, since the isolation of the bacterium, recent advances in medical microbiology, epidemiology and cellular biology have provided major insights into the understanding of the pathophysiology of T. whipplei infections that may result in Whipple's disease.