Growth of Trichomonas vaginalis in Basic Media Available in Routine Microbiology Laboratories

OBJECTIVE

Trichomonas vaginalis is a protozoan parasite with unicellular, flagellate, and anaerobic metabolism. It is the second most prevalent pathogen among sexually transmitted agents after viruses. Microscopic examination, culture, and molecular methods are used in the laboratory diagnosis of T. vaginalis. However, in most routine microbiology laboratories, microscopy is preferred instead of culture and molecular methods for T. vaginalis diagnosis because microscopy is cheaper than other methods. This study aimed to produce T. vaginalis in media that can be detected frequently in microbiology laboratories.

METHODS

In this study, four media, namely, thioglucholate medium (THIO), brain heart infusion medium (BHI), tryptic soy broth medium (TSB), and Brucella broth medium (BRB) were modified and tested. Trypticase-yeast extract-maltose (TYM) medium was used as a reference medium. Each medium tested was enriched with three different serum additives. T. vaginalis trophozoite at a density of 10⁴ parasites/mL was inoculated into each medium and incubated at 37 °C for 10 days. We determined the number of trophozoites using a hemocytometer, and the viability rates were determined using trypan blue.

RESULTS

Trichomonas vaginalis grew extremely well on THIO, BHI, and TSB media but not on BRB media. The time and number of parasites peaked were determined as 100×10⁴ parasites/mL on THIO-ATS and THIO-FCS media on days five and four, respectively, 100×10⁴ parasites/mL on BHI-ATS on day three, 98×10⁴ parasite/mL on BHI-FCS media on day five, 100×10⁴ parasites/mL on TSB-ATS on day four, and 82×10⁴ parasite/mL on TSB-FCS media on day seven. Compared with the reference medium, TYM, T. vaginalis trophozoites survived significantly longer in THIO, BHI, and TSB media.

CONCLUSION

The rich content of THIO, TSB, and BHI media, which are widely available in routine microbiology laboratories, may allow T. vaginalis growth.

A systematic review of Trichomonas vaginalis in Turkey from 2002 to 2020

Trichomonas vaginalis is a flagellate human parasite responsible for the most common non-viral sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the world. We aim to estimate the prevalence and basic characteristics of T. vaginalis infection in the Turkish population from 2002 to 2020. Six international and two national electronic databases were searched using keywords of "Trichomonas vaginalis" and "Turkey" both in English and Turkish languages. Searching motors for the present study included the following: Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Mendeley, Science Direct, Proquest, Web of Science, YOKtez, and TRDizin. This review includes cross-sectional studies estimating the prevalence of T. vaginalis infection in the Turkish general population. If it meets the criteria for inclusion, the full-text article was obtained and reviewed. The basic characteristics of each paper were extracted and listed. Overall, 65 articles were found about T. vaginalis infection in the general Turkish population in this period. Overall, the mean prevalence of infection was found to be 5.94%, 2.87% in men, and 6.17% in women. The maximum prevalence rates were 42.4% in bar girls, 28.3% in patients with gynecological complaints, 28% in patients applied to gynecology clinics, and 15.37% in patients with vaginal discharge. Among the regions, the highest rate of infection was in the Black Sea (8.76%) and Eastern Anatolia (8.12%). In most of the studies, DM and culture methods were applied together, and the specificity of the culture method was found to be higher. Although the superiority of culture over DM is obvious, both methods can give false negativity. T. vaginalis is still an important health problem among the Turkish population. The prevalence varies depending on the socioeconomic structure of the region, the lifestyle of the person, the method used in the study, the size of the population, and the clinical condition of patients.