Summary: Human foetal kidney cell cultures and agar and broth media were inoculated with Mycoplasma pulmonis (Negroni), a rodent pathogen, and were examined by electron microscopy.
In the tissue cell cultures, abundant extracellular mature mycoplasmas and elementary bodies were seen. The average diameter of elementary bodies was 99 nm. The average long and short axes of mycoplasmas growing on agar measured 800 and 600 nm. respectively.
Whole mounted broth-cultured mycoplasmas consisted of three principal cell types: large pleomorphic cells (up to 1500 nm. in diameter), filamentous forms, and elementary bodies (less than 180 nm. in diameter). Production of elementary bodies by budding from the mature cells was the normal method of multiplication. The life cycle was estimated to be 46 ± 7 h. under optimum conditions. Immunoelectron microscopy demonstrated positive reactions only with specific antisera.
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