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Anuric renal failure developed in four patients in association with increased intra-abdominal pressure from postoperative hemorrhage. Polyuria and resolution of the renal failure occurred in each patient in response to operative decompression of the abdomen. Renal failure secondary to increased intra-abdominal pressure has been previously produced experimentally in dogs by the intraperitoneal installation of graded amounts of saline. This is the first report of this type of renal failure in clinical practice.

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Methylosinus trichosporium exospores did not display a well-defined cortex or an exosporium. A thick, electron-dense exospore wall was characteristic of the exospores. Located on the exterior of the exospore wall was a cell wall to which a well-defined capsule was attached. An extensive lamellar intracytoplasmic membrane system characteristic of the kind in vegetative cells of this bacterium was present along the interior periphery of the exospore wall. Upon germination of M. trichosporium exospores, the thick exospore wall gradually disappeared and a germ tube formed. The intracytoplasmic membranes of the exospores extended into the germ tube which did not possess the extensive fibrillar capsule observed on the dormant exospore. Cup-shaped exospores which have an ultrastructure similar to that of mature exospores except that they are invaginated also germinated upon exposure to methane. Methylosinus trichosporium sporulates bybudding off an exospore from one end of the vegetative cell. These exospores are similar to bacterial endospores in that they demonstrate heat and desiccation resistance (9). It has also been shown that the external surface of the exospores is antigenically different from the external surface of the vegetative cells (4). The objective of this study was to examine the structure of M. trichosporium exospores in comparison to the structure of vegetative cells and to bacterial endospores.MATERIALS AND METHODS Culture methods. Liquid cultures of M. trichosporium OB3b originally obtained from R. Whittenbury were maintained in rubber-stoppered 250-ml flasks containing 50 ml of CM medium (8) and an atmosphere of air-methane (1:1). The cultures were incubated at 22 ± 20C. Exospore production. Aseptic technique was used throughout the following procedure. Fifty milliliters of a 3-day culture of M. trichosporium was inoculated into a rubber-stoppered 3-liter flask containing 750 ml of CM medium in an atmosphere of methane-air (1:1) and incubated on a rotary shaker at 150 rpm at 30°C for 48 h. This flask was used to inoculate a 14-liter fermentor (Model MF-107, New Brunswick Scientific Co., New Brunswick, N.J.) containing 7 liters of CM medium. The fermentor was maintained at 22 ± 2°C and aerated with a glass wool-filtered methane-air (2:1) gas mixture at a flow rate of 20 ml/min per liter and mixed at 150 rpm. After 72 h, the ratio of methaneair was changed to 1:2 and maintained for 12 h to enhance spore formation. Finally, the culture was aerated with air and no methane for 12 h. The broth from the fermentor was centrifuged at 7,000 x g for 15 min in a Sorvall RC-2B centrifuge. The cells were suspended in 40 ml of CM medium and passed through a French pressure cell at 21,000 lb/in2 three times. The suspension was centrifuged at 7,000 x g for 30 min and washed once with 40 ml of CM medium. A portion of the virtually vegetative cell-free pellet was saved for electron microscopy, and the remainder was used to obtain germinating exospores by suspension in 10 ml of CM medium and inoculation into a rubber-...

A facultatively methylotrophic Mycobacterium was isolated from Cleveland Harbor, Ohio, USA. The isolate, designated ID-Y, used a wide range of carbon and energy sources including methane and several other hydrocarbons. It displayed a growth cycle from rod-shaped exponential-phase cells, with many cell pairs exhibiting V-formation, to cocco-bacillary stationary-phase cells. A fixation technique involving glutaraldehyde/alcjan blue resulted in the observation of a three-layered cell wall. Isolate ID-Y has an ultrastructure similar to that of other mycobacteria, particularly Mycobacterium phlei and Mycobacterium fluoum, which is presently classified as a Xanthobacter species. I N T R O D U C T I O NTwo major groups of methane-oxidizing bacteria are recognized, obligate and facultative. Obligate methane-oxidizing bacteria are strictly aerobic, Gram-negative rods, vibrios or cocci which use only C , compounds or multiple carbon compounds with no carbon-to-carbon bonds. The majority of the facultative methane-oxidizing bacteria have similar characteristics and also the ability to utilize organic compounds with more than one carbon atom and carbon-to-carbon bonds. The methane-oxidizing mycobacteria have been studied infrequently, possibly due to the difficulty of isolation of these organisms in pure culture; they do not appear to fit the general description of the majority of facultative methylotrophs. This report describes a facultatively methylotrophic Mycobacterium that has a three-layered cell wall and displays characteristics similar but not identical to the organism originally described by Nechaeva (1949), and provides an isolate for further study of a facultative methylotroph thought to be no longer in existence. M E T H O D SIsolation and maintenance of' cultures. Enrichment cultures of methylotrophic bacteria were obtained by inoculating 5 ml Lake Erie water into a rubber-stoppered 74 ml serum bottle containing 35 ml sterile CM mineral salts medium (CM;Weaver & Dugan, 1975). Before inoculation, 10 ml air was withdrawn from and 10 ml sterile CH4 injected into each of the stoppered serum bottles. After inoculation, the enrichment cultures were incubated statically for 48 h at 30 "C. Samples from the enrichment cultures were then streaked onto C M agar and incubated in a desiccator under CH,/air (1 : I , v/v) at 30 "C. After several transfers on CM agar under CHJair, one of four isolates, designated ID-Y, was capable of growth on trypticase soy agar (TSA, BBL). ID-Y was repeatedly transferred from TSA plates to CM agar plates under CHJair and from CM plates back to TSA plates. A colony was diluted in liquid CM medium and the greatest dilution demonstrating growth was streaked onto mineral salts agar and incubated under CHJair ( 1 : I , viv).Liquid cultures were maintained in rubber-stoppered 125 ml Erlenmeyer flasks containing 25 ml CM medium. Before inoculation the rubber stopper of each flask was swabbed with an acetone-saturated piece of cotton. Culture fluid was injected through the rubber stopper with a ster...

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An indirect fluorescent antibody-membrane filter staining technique, which permitted the autecological study of Methylomonas methanica and Methylosinus trichosporium, was developed. This technique was used to assay the numbers of these two organisms in Cleveland Harbor. The concentrations of M. methanica MATERIALS AND METHODS Culture methods. M. trichosporium OB3b and M.