Morphological evidence of the presence of a bacillus in cell cultures of the synovial membrane from rheumatoid arthritis patients
Muelas Medrano, J.M.; Vallejo Galbete, J.C.
Revista Clinica Espanola 187(7): 329-333
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0014-2565 PMID: 2091112 Document Number: 356339
34 synovial membranes (SM) from 24 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, and two from osteoarthrosis cases as controls, were studied by culturing the cells on elongated coverslips and Giemsa staining them. 33/34 RA-SM, a 97%, disclosed the presence of a rod-shaped bacterium and its cell wall-deficient forms (CWDB), all adhering to the cells. An external contamination as the organism origin, was ruled out. From one of the RA-SM, a Gram (-), nonfermentative bacillus was isolated, which up to now remains unidentified. This bacillus, when reinoculated onto human embryonic fibroblasts, reproduces the images shown in the rest of the RA-SM. The possibility of this bacillus being the etiological agent of RA is discussed.