Abstract
A variety of cultured human fibroblast strains with different HL-A phenotypes were infected with non-fermentative and fermentative mycoplasmas. Both short-term and long-term infections were studied. It was found that many more mycoplasmas associated with the cell membranes of long-term infected cultures than of short-term infected ones. Mycoplasma effects on the morphology of long-term infected cultures varied from an increase in cytoplasmic granularity to frank cytopathogenicity. Regardless of the numbers of mycoplasmas associated with the cells, or the condition of the cells, there was no detectable change in the expression of HL-A antigens measured both qualitatively and quantitatively. It is suggested that HL-A antigens are an essential structural feature of the cytoarchitecture of the cells and/or play a role in transport processes and contact phenomena which are crucial to cell survival.
