Detection of toxoplasma gondii by polymerase chain reaction in recurrent abortive women

Polymerase chain reaction was applied for the detection DNA of the pathogenic protozoan Toxoplasma gondii based on 35-fold-repetitive gene (the B1 gene) as a target. Blood from (65) recurrent abortive women who were positive for (ELISA) and (25) apparently healthy pregnant women with no history of abortion as control group, were taken to extract DNA from it and to detect the B1 gene if present. The B1 gene was present and conserved in all T. gondii strains and to detect this gene from purified DNA samples, a two-stage PCR assay (nested PCR) was conducted employing oligonucleotide specific primers. PCR result indicated that 39(60%) recurrent abortive women had positive results while ELISA recovered 65(100%) positive res ult. This outcome revealed a significant difference between patients and control in both methods. PCR technique regarded a very useful method for diagnosis of toxoplasmosis inrecurrent abortive women because positive PCR result appeared to be a helpful indicator of active form of the disease.