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56Jamali et al.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14Fig. 1-d: RAPD banding pattern of T. vaginalis isolates using OPD5 primerLane 1: Size marker lambda DNA/EcoRI+HindIIILane 2-13: Banding pattern of T. vaginalis isolates No.52-63Lane 14: Size marker 100 bp DNA ladderDISCUSSIONTrichomoniasis is an important sexually transmitteddisease which may manifest with a wide range ofsymptoms ranging from an asymptomaticpresentation to severe sequel. It is `not clear yet as towhy only a proportion of individuals infected with T.vaginalis become symptomatic, whereas the restothers remain asymptomatic. Strain variation and hostfactors may play a role in leading to symptomatic orasymptomatic infections (Kaul et al., 2004). Recentstudies have shown the ability of DNA fingerprintingtechniques in differentiating strains of variousorganisms (Tibayrenc, 1998). Vanacova et al. (1997)for the first time used RAPD technique forphylogenetic analysis of T. vaginalis and found it auseful method in epidemiological analysis. Theirresults suggested a concordance between the geneticmarkers with resistance to metronidazole and clinicalfindings, but they found no concordance with thepresence of T. vaginalis virus (TVV) and the virulenceof strains.association between genetic polymorphism oforganism and its clinical characters. Their resultsemphasize that the severity of infection depends on thegenetic type of T. vaginalis involved.In the present study, we used RAPD method for thegenetic analysis of 120 clinical isolates of T. vaginalis,and we investigated the association of T. vaginalisgenetic polymorphism and its clinical classification assymptomatic or asymptomatic. In conclusion, ourresults show that the isolates from asymptomaticpatients tend to form a distinct cluster separate fromsymptomatic isolates, and that T. vaginalis isolatesfrom patients with or without symptoms aregenetically different. Further studies are necessary tobetter understand the relationship between geneticmarkers and the pathogenicity of the organism.REFERENCESFraga J, Rojas L, Sariego I and Sarria CA. 2002. Optimizationof random amplified polymorphic DNA technique for its usein genetic studies of Tricomonas vaginalis isolates. InfectGenet E 2: 73-75.Hample et al. (2001) assayed the relationship between Hample V, Vanacova S, Kulda J and Flegr J. 2001.20 strains of T. vaginalis from eight countries using Concordance between genetic relatedness and phenotypicRAPD analysis, and they found that the phylogenic similarities of Trichomonas vaginalis strains. BMC Evoltree reflects the pattern of virulence, geographic origin Biol 48:1-11.or infection by TVV. Rojas et al. (2004) used RAPD Jane RS and Edward W. 2003. High rate of Trichomonastechnique in 40 isolates of T. vaginalis to find an vaginalis among men attending a sexually transmitted