Relationship of Ureaplasma urealyticum infection between women and their male partners

Objective To understand the relationship of Ureaplasma urealyticum (Uu) infection between women and their male partners. Methods By excluding other urethral pathogen infection, 334 symptomatic and 61 asymptomatic women infected with Uu and 395 male partners were surveyed from February 2010 to March 2011. The endocervix or vagina, urethral secretions were collected from them respectively. Fluorescent quantitative PCR (FQ-PCR) was conducted to determine the Uu gene expression and PCR reverse dot blot (PCR-RDB) assay was conducted for the genogroup detection of Uu. Results Of 395 male partners, 203 (51.39%) were infected with Uu. The infection rates of Uu in symptomatic and asymptomatic women were 56.3% (188/334) and 24.6% (15/61) respectively (2=19.50, P0.01). PCR-RDB assay revealed that biovar 1 infection, biovar 2 infection and co-infection were found in the symptomatic women, but biovar 1 infection was predominant. The asymptomatic women were mainly infected with biovar 1, accounting for 86.9% (53/61), In the symptomatic womens male partners, the infection of biovar 2 and co-infection were found in those who had urethritis symptoms (98.7%, 147/149) and the infection of biovar 1 was found in those who had no urethritis symptoms (94.9%, 37/39). It was also found that all the asymptomatic womens male partners had no urethritis symptoms, and most of them were infected with biovar 1 (80.0%, 12/15). Further analysis showed that when the women were infected with biovar 1, the infection rate of Uu in their male partners was relatively low, but when women had biovar 2 infection or co-infection, the infection rates in their male partners were as high as 98.6% (71/72) or 73.0% (84/115). Conclusion Whether the women were infected with biovar 1 or biovar 2, biovar 2 infection was found in their male partners. Therefore, the genogroup detection of Uu in infected women and their male partners can help physician to make targeted strategies for treatment of Uu infection and track the source of infection.