HOME CULTURES AS AN AID IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF STREPTOCOCCAL RESPIRATORY INFECTION. EVALUATION OF THE FILTER-PAPER STRIP AS A TRANSPORT MEDIUM.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
SEARCH · PubMed Health
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
With a modified color-translating ultraviolet microscope, the distribution of material showing an absorption maximum at 265 mmicro was studied in samples from whole cultures of Entamoeba invadens at intervals during growth and from cysts allowed to mature under controlled conditions. Absorption by the cytoplasm in general gradually increased as trophozoites approached the period of maximum encystment. In late trophozoites and precystic forms, the absorbing material was concentrated into small bodies which coalesced to form large crystalloids of very high specific absorption. Maximum crystallization occurred in early cysts, where cytochemical tests have shown the large crystalloids to be ribonucleoprotein. Electron micrographs show that the crystalloids are composed of particles 200 to 300 A in diameter. During cyst maturation the amount of absorbing material per cyst is not visibly reduced, but the large bodies fragment into smaller units until finally there is only a very high diffuse absorption over the entire cyst. From these and other results the hypothesis is advanced that the large crystalloids ("chromatoid bodies") are a manifestation of a special parasite-host adaptive mechanism; ribonucleoprotein is synthesized under favorable conditions, crystallized in the resistant cyst stage, and dispersed in the newly excysted amebae thereby enabling them to establish themselves in a new host by a period of quick growth.
Lepromin, a product containing Mycobacterium leprae from patients' tissues, fails to elicit skin reactions in lepromatous patients; this non-reactivity was utilized as a means of identifying the mycobacterium isolated in mouse foot-pads from leprosy patients. To do this a suspension of acid-fast bacilli prepared from mouse foot-pads infected with a typical isolate was compared to human lepromin. The isolate was in fourth passage, and the multiplication since first isolation had diluted the original inoculum to insignificant levels. Three preparations were tested: A, A foot-pad preparation containing 1.6 x 10(7) organisms/ml, B, lepromin diluted to the same bacillary content, and C, undiluted lepromin containing 4.2 x 10(7) organisms/ml. The reactions were compared in 34 lepromatous and 30 tuberculoid patients. All 34 lepromatous patients were negative in both early (Fernandez) and late (Mitsuda) reactions to all 3 antigens. In the tuberculoid patients the late reactions were positive in 66.7, 70.0 and 90.0 per cent to antigens A, B, and C, respectively. The size of the reactions to A and B were closely correlated in the individual patients. Experience in leprosy patients with suspensions prepared from 16 other mycobacterial cultures is reported or reviewed. None of them produced reactions that correlated with those of lepromin. Thus the lack of reactivity to lepromin of lepromatous patients appears to be a specific phenomenon. The results provide evidence that the foot-pad isolates and M. leprae are immunologically identical.
Human sera were found to contain antibodies precipitating with each of two samples of teichoic acid of Staphylococcus aureus prior to immunization; these antibodies were probably formed as a result of contact or infection with this microorganism. Injection of teichoic acid into two individuals resulted in a rise in circulating antibody to teichoic acid; a third subject probably had a primary response to alpha-teichoic acid. Quantitative precipitin and agar diffusion studies revealed the presence of two distinct antibodies in the sera and showed that each specimen of teichoic acid was a mixture of two polymers an alpha-linked N-acetylglucosaminyl-ribitol polymer and a beta-linked N-acetylglucosaminyl-ribitol polymer, termed alpha- and beta-teichoic acids respectively. The alpha-teichoic acid anti-alpha-teichoic acid system was inhibited best by alpha-linked glucosaminides and the beta-anti-beta-teichoic acid system was inhibited best by a beta-linked glucosaminide. The alpha- and (beta-teichoic acids could be separated from each other by specific precipitation under appropriate conditions and recovered from the washed specific precipitates. The existence of two distinct teichoic acid polymers raises important questions as to cell wall structure and the biosynthesis of the teichoic acids.
Selective culture media, and equipment for anaerobic incubation of large numbers of specimens, have been developed to facilitate the quantitative enumeration of the various aerobic and anaerobic bacterial species present in the gastrointestinal tract. The evolution of this flora has been followed in young mice from several colonies by cultivating homogenates of the different parts of the gastrointestinal tract at daily intervals from the time of birth to the time of weaning. It has been found that the lactobacilli and anaerobic streptococci become established immediately after birth and persist in large numbers, not only in the large intestine but also in the stomach and in the small intestine. In contrast, the anaerobic bacilli of the bacteroides group become established only after the 16th day; they multiply only in the large intestine but persist in this organ in very large numbers. Other bacterial species become established at different periods of time after birth, exhibit characteristic anatomic localizations, and greatly fluctuate in numbers. In general, the populations of enterobacilli and enterococci decrease precipitously after having reached a maximum level shortly after the beginning of colonization.
The bacterial flora of the gastrointestinal tract differs qualitatively and quantitatively from one colony of mice to another. Certain components of this flora, however, are always present in large and approximately constant numbers in healthy adult mice, irrespective of the colony from which the animals are derived. Lactobacilli and anaerobic streptococci are extremely numerous in the stomach, the small intestine, and the large intestine. In contrast, organisms of the bacteroides group proliferate only in the large intestine. These three bacterial species persist at approximately constant levels in their characteristic localization throughout the life span of healthy animals. They are closely associated with the walls of the digestive organs, and are probably concentrated in the mucous layer. A few experiments carried out with rats and young swine indicate that lactobacilli are also present in large numbers in the stomach of these animal species. It is suggested that some of the components of the gastrointestinal flora have become symbiotic with their hosts in the course of evolutionary development and thus constitute a true autochthonous flora. The other components of the indigenous flora are acquired early in life either through accidental contact or because they are ubiquitous in the environment. The "normal" flora is that which is always present in the environment of the animal colony under consideration.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.