Mycoplasmas

Mycoplasmas - A specific and unique species of bacteria. The primary differences between mycoplasmas and other bacteria is that bacteria have a solid cell-wall structure and can grow in the simplest culture media. Mycoplasmas however, do not have a cell wall, and can take on many different shapes which make them difficult to identify.
Mycoplasmas can also be very hard to culture and can be missed as pathogenic causes of diseases for this reason.

Unlike viruses, mycoplasmas can grow in tissue fluids and can grow inside living tissue cell without killing the cells.

Mycoplasmas can be found in the oral and genito-urinary tracts of healthy people and are found to infect females four times more often than males, approximately the same incidence rate in rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue and other related disorders.

Mycoplasmas are parasitic in nature and can attach to specific cells without killing the cells, therefore their infection process and progress may go undetected.

In some people the attachment of mycoplasmas to the host cell acts like a persistent foreign substance, causing the immune defence system to react. The allergic type of inflammation can result in heated, swollen, and painful inflamed tissues, like those found autoimmune disorders. In such cases the immune system begins attacking itself.

Some species of mycoplasmas have the ability to completely evade the immune system. Once they attach to a host cell in the body, their plasma and protein coating can mimic the cell wall of the host cell and the immune system cannot differentiate the mycoplasma from the body's own host cell.

Mycoplasmas are parasitic in nature and rely on the nutrients found in host cells. Once attached to a host cell, they compete for nutrients inside the host cell. As nutrients are depleted, the host cells can begin to malfunction, or even change normal functioning of the cell, causing a chain reaction with other cells.

Mycoplasmas can also invade and live inside host cells which evade the immune system, especially white blood cells. Once inside a white blood cell, mycoplasmas can travel throughout the body and even cross the blood/brain barrier, and into the central nervous system and spinal fluid.

Mycoplasmas are highly adaptable to changing environments and can move anywhere in the body, attaching to or invading virtually any type of cell in the body.

Certain Mycoplasma species can either activate or suppress host immune systems.

Mycoplasma can attach to or invade immune system cells and can be carried to new locations of inflammation or disease

When a mycoplasma attaches to a host cell, it generates and releases hydrogen peroxide and superoxide radicals which cause oxidative stress and damage to the surrounding tissues.