{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,12]],"date-time":"2026-10-12T20:50:25Z","timestamp":1791838225052,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":69,"publisher":"American Society for Microbiology","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,6,26]],"date-time":"2018-06-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1529971200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,5]],"date-time":"2018-07-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1530748800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.asm.org\/non-commercial-tdm-license"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000060","name":"HHS | NIH | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["R21AI128494"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R21AI128494"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000060","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.asm.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["mBio"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,5]]},"abstract":"ABSTRACT<\/jats:title>\n \n Investigation of\n Treponema pallidum<\/jats:named-content>\n subsp.\n pallidum<\/jats:named-content>\n , the spirochete that causes syphilis, has been hindered by an inability to culture the organism continuously\n in vitro<\/jats:italic>\n despite more than a century of effort. In this study, long-term logarithmic multiplication of\n T.\u00a0pallidum<\/jats:named-content>\n was attained through subculture every 6 to 7\u00a0days and periodic feeding using a modified medium (\n T.\u00a0pallidum<\/jats:named-content>\n culture medium\u00a02 [TpCM-2]) with a previously described microaerobic, rabbit epithelial cell coincubation system. Currently, cultures have maintained continuous growth for over 6\u00a0months with full retention of viability as measured by motility and rabbit infectivity. This system has been applied successfully to the well-studied Nichols strain of\n T.\u00a0pallidum<\/jats:named-content>\n , as well as to two recent syphilis isolates, UW231B and UW249B. Light microscopy and cryo-electron microscopy showed that\n in vitro<\/jats:italic>\n -cultured\n T.\u00a0pallidum<\/jats:named-content>\n retains wild-type morphology. Further refinement of this long-term subculture system is expected to facilitate study of the physiological, genetic, pathological, immunologic, and antimicrobial susceptibility properties of\n T.\u00a0pallidum<\/jats:named-content>\n subsp.\n pallidum<\/jats:named-content>\n and closely related pathogenic\n Treponema<\/jats:italic>\n species and subspecies.\n <\/jats:p>\n \n IMPORTANCE<\/jats:bold>\n Syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease with a global distribution, is caused by a spiral-shaped bacterium called\n Treponema pallidum<\/jats:named-content>\n subspecies\n pallidum<\/jats:named-content>\n . Previously,\n T.\u00a0pallidum<\/jats:named-content>\n was one of the few major bacterial pathogens that had not been cultured long-term\n in vitro<\/jats:italic>\n (in a test tube), greatly hindering efforts to better understand this organism and the disease that it causes. In this article, we report the successful long-term cultivation of\n T.\u00a0pallidum<\/jats:named-content>\n in a tissue culture system, a finding that is likely to enhance our ability to obtain new information applicable to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of syphilis.\n <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1128\/mbio.01153-18","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,6,25]],"date-time":"2018-06-25T09:36:13Z","timestamp":1529919373000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1128\/asmj-crossmark-policy-page","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":210,"title":["Long-Term\n In Vitro<\/i>\n Culture of the Syphilis Spirochete\n Treponema pallidum<\/i>\n subsp.\n pallidum<\/i>"],"prefix":"10.1128","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Diane G.","family":"Edmondson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bo","family":"Hu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2501-8034","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Steven J.","family":"Norris","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA"},{"name":"Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"235","reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_2","volume-title":"Report on global sexually transmitted infection surveillance 2015","author":"World Health Organization","year":"2016","unstructured":"World Health Organization. 2016. 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