Morphological changes of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in amniotic fluid of pregnant women in their midtrimester.

Abstract

Ten selected samples of amniotic fluid obtained through transabdominal amniocentesis from 10 pregnant women in their 17th-19th weeks of pregnancy were investigated for the survival of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in amniotic fluid. In 8 cases an antibacterial effect was observed with morphological changes comparable to the effect of benzylpenicillin. When N. gonorrhoeae was inoculated in amniotic fluid at 10(5)-10(7) cells/ml, it survived as an average 2 h longer than after inoculation of 10(2)-10(4) cells/ml. Electron microscopic pictures of gonococci taken after 2.6 and 24 h incubation in amniotic fluid correlated with the growth curves. Electron microscopically there were marked morphologic changes of N. gonorrhoeae, viz. vacuolar degeneration of their cytoplasm with a damage to the bacterial wall up to its complete destruction and lysis of the cell.