Microagglutination Tests with Trichomonas vaginalis

The immunology of human vaginal trichomoniasis has received scant attention, Evidence of circulating antibodies against Trichomonas vaginalis has been provided by two studies. Using an alcoholic extract of an impure culture of the protozoa as an antigen, Wendlberger (1936) demonstrated complement-fixing reactions with the sera from twenty-two of thirty-two infected women. Sixteen uninfected women gave negative reactions, as did carriers with no manifestations of vaginal disease. The twenty-two women whose sera gave positive reactions had abnormal vaginal discharges with or without vaginitis. Trussell and Wilson (1942) prepared an antigen consisting of a saline suspension of bacteria-free T. vaginalis that had been cultured in a simple peptone-carbohydrate human serum medium, and repeatedly washed before use, thus insuring a preparation in which the only complex elements foreign to the human body were the components of the trichomonads. Ante partum venous blood specimens from four hundred women, who were examined for trichomoniasis, were tested for complement-fixing antibodies. The results are tabulated as follows: