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Detection of Mycoplasma ribosomal DNA sequences in ovarian tumors by nested PCR
J T Quirk1, J M Kupinski, R A DiCioccio
1Department of Cancer Prevention, Epidemiology, and Biostatistics, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York 14263, USA. jeff.quirk@roswellpark.org
Objective:
The aim of this study was to investigate the reported association between mycoplasma infection and ovarian cancer by screening ovarian tumor tissues for the presence of mycoplasma DNA.
Methods:
Forty-six benign and malignant ovarian tumors were obtained from patients undergoing pelvic surgery at a regional cancer center. DNA was isolated from snap-frozen tumor tissues, and commercial nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kits were used to detect the presence of 12 species of mycoplasma in tumor DNA samples. PCR products were isolated from ethidium bromide-stained agarose gels, and sequenced with an automated DNA sequencer. Species were identified through nucleotide sequence similarity searches using the National Center for Biotechnology Information BLAST program.
Results:
Mycoplasma DNA was detected in 6 (13.0%) of the 46 tumor DNA samples. Nucleotide sequence similarity searches of nested PCR products revealed that one Mycoplasma salivarium and five M. arginini DNA sequences were amplified from the ovarian tissues.
Conclusions:
Since M. salivarium and M. arginini are frequently encountered laboratory contaminants that do not have a recognized role as human pathogens, our findings do not support an association between human mycoplasma pathogens and ovarian cancer.