CHARACTERISTICS OF A STRAIN OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS GROWN IN VIVO AND IN VITRO

Surfactant wound irrigation for the treatment of staphylococcal clinical isolates

Deep wound infection involving an implanted biomaterial is a devastating complication in orthopaedic surgery. Two-thirds of such infections are monomicrobial and the most commonly isolated bacteria in human osteomyelitis and orthopaedic device infection are Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of the previously reported sequential surfactant irrigation protocol against human-isolated clinical strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis in the rat model of orthopaedic implant contamination. The infectivity rate of human-isolated clinical strains of Staphylococcus aureus in a contaminated complex orthopaedic wound was reduced effectively by a sequential surfactant irrigation protocol. Also, in this model, the infectivity of Staphylococcus epidermidis was reduced by normal saline irrigation alone when compared with no irrigation. Therefore, the sequential surfactant irrigation protocol may represent an effective method of wound irrigation in monomicrobial Staphylococcus aureus orthopaedic implant contamination, and normal saline irrigation may suffice in cases of monomicrobial Staphylococcus epidermidis contamination. Additional studies are necessary to determine the clinical use of surfactant irrigation.

Role of the cell envelope in bacterial adaptation to growth in vivo in infections

To establish an infection, a pathogenic bacterium must adapt to growth in the hostile environment encountered in vivo in host tissues. The cell envelope plays a crucial role in this adaptive process, since it is involved in promoting adhesion to and colonisation of host tissues, in the acquisition of essential nutrients and in conferring resistance to host defences and to antibiotics. Its properties are ultimately determined by the information stored within the genome, which also contains the potential to respond to environmental change. The macromolecular structure and function of the cell envelope are largely determined by the growth environment and, in particular, specific nutrient limitation, growth rate, growth temperature and replication in suspension or within a surface-associated biofilm. Bacteria growing in vivo will manufacture envelopes characteristic of that environment and which will differ markedly in physiology, biochemistry and immunogenicity from those of cells grown in a standard laboratory medium. In vivo, the ability to withhold iron is an important component of the host's defence and iron deprivation has a pronounced effect on the metabolism and cell envelope properties of pathogenic bacteria. The phenotypic plasticity of the bacterial cell surface plays an important role in determining susceptibility to host defences and antibiotics and has important implications for the design and evaluation of new therapeutic strategies for the treatment and prevention of bacterial infections.

The immunophysiological basis for vaccinating ruminants against mastitis

The roles of humoral and cellular defence mechanisms in protection of the mammary gland against bacterial infection are reviewed. Effective protection depends on opsonisation of pathogens and subsequent phagocytosis by neutrophils. A concomitant requirement for protection is the rapid infiltration of neutrophils into the infected gland. Immunological studies have shown the need to prime animals against antigens expressed by bacteria when they grow in vivo. Vaccination procedures which promote these mammary defence mechanisms are discussed.

Evaluation and use of the drug inhibition method of measuring intracellular killing in differentiating between staphylococci grown in vivo and in vitro

A Staphylococcus aureus strain grown once in vivo in rabbit pleural cavities was appreciably more resistant to killing by soluble polymorph bactericidins than its broth-grown counterpart. Parallel results were obtained using an adaptation of Solberg's drug-inhibition method of measuring intracellular killing after critical aspects of it had been evaluated and modified. Individual in vivo grown organisms were surrounded by a layer of less dense material which was not capsular in nature but which made the organisms clump together. This surface coating was lost on subculture in vitro, resulting in a reversion to broth-like susceptibility, thus indicating that the surface coating was largely responsible for the enhanced resistance and that it resulted from interactions between staphylococci and components of the rabbits' natural body fluids. Consequently, growth in plasma produced organisms which mimicked in vivo grown organisms in clumping, surface coating and in resistance to killing. The use of plasma-grown staphylococci in further studies of likely resistance mechanisms in vivo is discussed.

Further studies on antigen variation in Staphylococcus aureus

The plating of successive Staphylococcus aureus subcultures of daily transfers proved that discontinuous variation resembling a genetic mutation and selective outgrowth of the variant are responsible for antigen variation. Every subculture of S. aureus, when repeatedly transferred, contained a mixture of cells with original antigen 17 (or 13) and final antigen 1 (or 3) that are relevant for research, serological diagnosis, and epidemiological study of staphylococcal diseases.

Purification and characterization of a staphylococcal epidermolytic toxin

A staphylococcal exotoxin that causes epidermolysis when injected into the skin of the newborn mouse and man was highly purified by coventional biochemical techniques. With Staphylococcus aureus EV, the epidermolytic toxin was a major protein component of supernatant culture fluids. The initial step in purification was zone electrophoresis in Pevikon carried out at pH 9.0, the isoelectric point of alpha-hemolytic toxin, which remained near the origin. Fractions containing the epidermolytic toxin, but free of alpha-toxin, were then subjected to cation exchange chromatography on carboxymethyl-Sephadex C-50 to remove trace contaminants. A major highly purified epidermolytic toxin migrated as a single band in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, sedimented as a single component in the analytical ultracentrifuge, and elicited a single precipitating antibody after injection into rabbits. A smaller amount of a second epidermolytic toxin, identical in molecular weight and antigenicity but differing in electrophoretic behavior from the major molecular species, was also identified. The epidermolytic factor had a molecular weight of 28,600 +/- 400 by sodium dodecyl sulfate-acrylamide electrophoresis and 32,500 +/- 120 by approach to sedimentation equilibrium.

Fine structure of Cryptococcus neoformans grown in vivo as observed by freeze-etching

Cryptococcus neoformans grown in the parasitic state was observed by the freeze-etching technique and was compared with that grown on culture media. Unlike other yeasts, this organism grown in vivo is very often devoid of the "ordinary" invaginations. The membrane of the cell grown in vivo was almost free from concavity and convexity except for many round depressions which represent the surface view of paramural bodies. Some of the paramural bodies were found to be multivesicular systems. Most were spherical invaginations containing a single vesicle or its ghost remaining after secretion of the vesicles. In clear contrast to the cell grown in vitro, the in vivo cell contained a great number of vesicles in the cytoplasm. These seemed to show high-secretion activity in C. neoformans grown in the parasitic state. On transfer from in vitro to in vivo, this organism enlarged the cell wall, capsule, and cell body. The appearance of a large vacuole, accumulation of storage organelles, and the existence of rodlike structures, seemingly lipid deposits, were also noted in the cytoplasm of the cell grown in vivo. the meaning of these results as well as the mode of capsular production are discussed.

Deoxyribonucleic acid base composition in the taxonomy of Staphylococcus

Twenty-four strains of Staphylococcus aureus, including eight known mutants of S. aureus and strains growing under a variety of environmental conditions or exposed to a number of physical and chemical agents, maintained a remarkably narrow range of guanine plus cytosine (GC) content (32.4 to 35.1%). The wide range of GC content (30.7 to 40%) reported in the literature was due to the variety of methods and calculations used rather than to any substantial variation in base composition. The UV-2 "mutant" (ATCC 13680) with a GC content of 67.6% reported to be derived from S. aureus (ATCC 13679) was a species of Corynebacterium. The data presented were consistent with the concept that base composition changes only to a very slight degree by mutation.