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Enhancement of Pathogenicity of Human Typhoid Organisms by Mucin

1935; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 32; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3181/00379727-32-8161p

1535-3702

Geoffrey Rake,

Salmonella and Campylobacter epidemiology

It is recognized that experimental work on typhoid fever has been handicapped by the lack of a small susceptible laboratory animal. Even with highly virulent strains of B. typhosus, several million organisms are required to kill mice when inoculated intraperitoneally. With such numbers, the fate of the animal is due not only to virulence and invasiveness but also to toxicity from products of disintegration of the organisms. Recently Norton and Dingle1 have been able to increase the virulence of B. typhosus 20,000 times by intracerebral inoculation. By combining the typhoid organisms with mucin, as used for other organisms,2-6 their virulence for mice can be increased a million times.The method for the preparation of mucin has been given elsewhere.4,6 Twelve- to 15-hour cultures of the organisms on plain agar have been used throughout. Thirteen cultures of B. typhosus and 2 each of Paratyphoid A and B have been tested. Five B. typhosus cultures were isolated within 9 months and of these, 3 required only 10...