Name
Greek (trichos = tiny, thin hair; monas = simple organism and Latin (tenere = keep, hold fast).
Geographic Distribution/Epidemiology
Worldwide, especially in persons with reduced oral hygiene.
Morphology/Life Cycle
T. tenax occurs only as flagellated, vegetative stage in the oral cavity of humans reaching a length of 5–16 μm. This stage possesses four free flagella at the anterior pole and a lateral recurrent one (Fig. 1). Reproduction occurs by repeated longitudinal binary fission. They feed on bacteria, which they ingest by phagocytosis. However, they ingest also masses of glycogen from food remnants in the teeth. Mass reproduction occurs in cases, when the oral microflora has increased due to low oral hygiene. Intestinal passage is apparently not survivable for these specimens.
Diagrammatic representation of T. tenax from the human mouth
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Further Reading
El Sibaei MM et al (2012) Growth kinetics, antigen profiling and proteinase activity of Egyptian Trichomonas tenax isolates derived from patients having oral infections. Exp Parasitol 130:416–422
Nielsen TJ et al (2012) Glycogen accumulation and degradation by the trichomonads Trichomonas vaginalis and T. tenax. J Eukaryot Microbiol 59:359–366
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© 2016 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Mehlhorn, H. (2016). Trichomonas tenax . In: Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Parasitology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43978-4_4471
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43978-4_4471
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-43977-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-43978-4
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