Isolation and characterization of oral treponemes

The oral treponemes were isolated on nine media and classified according to Anaerobe Laboratory Manual (1977). The four media, which were used with the plate-in-bottle method, were Medium 10 (M10), M10 supplemented with 10% rumen fluid, M10 supplemented with 10% rabbit serum and cocarboxylate, and M10 added with rifampicin. The five media with the anaerobic glove box method were New Oral Spirochetes (NOS) medium, NOS medium added with rifampicin, alternated modified Oral Treponemes Isolation (aOTI) medium, and alternated M10 for anaerobic glove box. The isolation rate of the oral treponemes from 59 subgingival plaque samples of various forms of periodontal diseases was 85 percent. Ninety clinical isolates were subcultured and classified into six groups (I-VI) based on the carbohydrate fermentation and metabolic end products. Three saccaharolytic groups were further divided into nine subgroups by the fermentation patterns of sucrose, lactose, maltose and rhamnose. Two saccaharolytic subgroups were identified as Treponema socranskii, and two asaccharolytic groups were identified as "T. denticola" and "T. vincentii". However, the other subgroups and group could not be identified according to the characteristics of the presently recognized species.