Morphological Lesions of the Rat Urinary Tract Induced by Inoculation of Mycoplasmas and Other Urinary Tract Pathogens

The effects on the urinary tract after inoculation of Ureaplasma urealyticum into the rat bladder were evaluated and compared to that seen after Mycoplasma hominis, Escherichia coli and Proteus mirabilis inoculation. The inoculation of the urease-producing organisms P. mirabilis and U. urealyticum were associated with the formation of struvite bladder stones and predominantly hyperplastic lesions of the bladder. The P. mirabilis inoculated rats also displayed marked pyelonephritis. A similar but much less pronounced reaction also occurred in the kidneys of some of the U. urealyticum inoculated rats. P. mirabilis could frequently be recultured. In contrast, this was not possible with U. urealyticum, but the organism was detected by scanning electron microscopy 2 weeks after the inoculation. Inoculation of M. hominis was associated with a few mild lesions of the bladder, but inflammatory lesions were not present in the kidneys. The study confirms the potential of Ureaplasma to form struvite stones in rat urinary tract. It also demonstrates that it can induce inflammatory changes in both bladder and kidney of rats without concomitant stone formation.