Ureaplasma urealyticum

1.Ureaplasma urealyticum is belongs to microplasma family

2.Ureaplasma urealyticum are some of the smallest known organisms that can self-replicate on laboratory media.

3.U. urealyticum is often associated with Mycoplasmas and shares a similar cell structure.

4.Ureaplasma urealyticum, range from 125-250 nm in size.

5.They are highly pleomorphic, because they lack a cell wall.

6.They are bound by a triple-layered “unit membrane” that contains a sterol, causing them to stain as gram negative.

7.Ureaplasma urealyticum can reproduce in cell-free media, agar.

8.However, they require the addition of cholesterol, which is required to make their “unit membrane”.

9.  Mycoplasmas (and therefore also U. urealyticum) are completely resistant to penicillin because they lack a cell wall, but are inhibited by tetracycline or erythromycin. It had also been associated with a number of diseases in humans, including non-specific urethritis (NSU),  infertility,  chorioamnionitis,  stillbirth, premature birth, and, in   the  perinatal  period,  pneumonia,  bronchopulmonary dysplasia (T. Diemer et al.,2001) and meningitis.

10.  Ureaplasma urealyticum stains gram negative, but that is because it lacks a cell wall. Ureaplasma urealyticum is a bacterium belonging to the family Mycoplasmataceae. Ureaplasma urealyticum is part of the normal genital flora of both men and women. It is found in about 70% of sexually active humans.

•Fig: Mixture of M. hominis and U. urealyticum colonies on differential agar medium A7. Unstained,natural appearance. Colonies of U. urealyticum are unmistakably identified by their deep golden-brown color on this A7 medium, whereas colonies of M. horminis are unreactive.