Mycoplasma hominis - Mycoplasmas

Mycoplasma hominis is a microorganism that populates the genitourinary tract of some men and women, especially those who are sexually active. Its presence in these places can have both commensal meaning (it does not create any suffering or disturbance) and pathological. In the latter case, Mycoplasma hominis is commonly implicated in the genesis of bacterial vaginosis and pelvic inflammatory disease, along with Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

As such, Mycoplasma hominis can cause infertility, spontaneous abortion, endometritis, salpingitis, premature rupture of membranes, chorion-amniotic infections and poor development of the newborn. In the male it can instead determine infertility, urethritis, prostatitis and pyelonephritis. Since this organism is often isolated together with high infectious agents, its degree of pathogenicity is however uncertain. Favored by poor immune defenses, Mycoplasma hominis can also be the cause of various forms of morbidity in extragenital sites.

The percentages of colonization, both in the male and in the female sex, are correlated to the sexual activity (different partners), but the transmission of the infection can also occur vertically from the mother to the child. The data present in the literature are conflicting; on average, Mycoplasma hominis occurs in about 20 to 50% of sexually active women and in slightly lower percentages in males.

The treatment used to eradicate Mycoplasma hominis infection uses antibiotics that interfere with protein synthesis, such as azithromycin and doxycycline.

Mycoplasmas are the smallest cells capable of independent living, with a cosmopolitan distribution. Real estate, without a rigid cell wall and as such of extremely variable morphology (spherical, filamentous), human mycoplasmas include the genera Mycoplasma and Ureaplasma (mycoplasma capable of hydrolyzing urea). Mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum are the pathogenic species most frequently isolated from the genitourinary tract.

Main human mycoplasmas of pathological interest
Mycoplasma pneumoniae	Etiological agent of primary atypical pneumonia, which mainly affects infants and children
Mycoplasma hominis	Common commensal of the genitourinary apparatus, associated with some pathologies of the genital apparatus of the adult and of the respiratory tract of the newborn.
Mycoplasma genitalium	Normal commensal of the genitourinary apparatus which, similar to Mycoplasma hominis, can assume pathogenic characteristics.
Ureaplasma urealyticum	It can cause non-gonococcal and non-chlamydial urethritis; it is associated with miscarriage, premature birth and birth-mortality; can cause meningitis in the newborn.