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Antoni van Leeuwenhoek.
1632-1723
He is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology", and considered to be the first microbiologist.

references

Leptotrichia species in human infections
Emenike Ribs K. Eribe, Ingar Olsen





www.elsevier.com/locatie/anaerobe

Leptotrichia buccalis

  • General information


    • History
      Leptotrichia was among the first microorganisms described and probably recognized by van Leeuwenhoek already in 1683.

      Taxonomy
      Family: Leptotrichiaceae

      Natural habitats
      Leptotrichia colonize the oral cavity and genitourinary tract.
      These anaerobic bacteria belong to the normal flora of humans and are seldom found in the clinically significant specimens.

      Clinical significance
      On rare occasions, Leptotrichia has been isolated from blood cultures of patients with lesions in the oral mucosa, in particular from patients with neutropenia.

      These organisms should be considered potential pathogens in neutropenic patients, especially when breaks in the mucosal barriers are present through which they frequently spread to the bloodstream.

  • Gram stain

    • Very large Gram negative rods,

      with one pointed and one square end and intracellular gram-positive stained granules.

      The cells are wider (0.8-1.5 µm), and longer (5-15 µm) than most Gram negative rods in clinical material.
      The length of the cells may be even longer than the field of view of a 100x magnification.

      Leptotrichia species cell morphology
      1 very long rods
      2 relatively short
      3 pleomorphic coccobacilli and fusiform

      Fresh cells may stain Gram positive

  • Culture characteristics

    • Obligate anaerobic / AEROTOLERANT

      BBAØ: colonies are 0.5-3.0 mm, convex and with a convoluted surface.

      They are sparsely filamentous to irregular and grayish brown in color, with a dark central spot in old colonies. Some colonies are opaque and dry in consistency

      Although Leptotrichia species are anaerobic on first isolation, in subculture some strains grow aerobically in the prescence of CO2.

  • Characteristics

  • References

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