An Attempt to Establish Experimental Dysenteric Bacilli Cystitis

Abstract

It was demonstrated that transurethral inoculation of the freshly isolated strains of Shigella into guinea pigs led to an acute severe dysenteric cystitis, resulting in the death of a majority of them, whereas stock cultures of the same species did not. Investigationsconcerning shigellosis have shown that man, the chimpanzee and the monkey are the only species susceptible to natural Shigella infection, small laboratory animals being more or less resistant. Attempts to develop experimental models of shigellosis, in recent years, have been oriented to modify the methodology used in experimental infection in small laboratory animals. Sereny [8] and Mackel et al.[4] reported that they could establish infection in conjunctival sac of guinea pigs. Bingel [1] and Manolov and Kosturkov [5] also noted that cystitis in guinea pigs could be caused by Shigella. This paper deals with the establishment of dysenteric cystitis in guinea pigs inoculated with freshly isolated strains of Shigella MATERIALS AND METHODSTest organisms. Freshly isolated strains of Shigella from the feces of shigellosis patients were employed: Sh. flexneri 2a, strain TMH-l; Sh. flexneri 2a, strain TMH-2; Sh. flexneri 3a, strain TMH-3; Sh. flexneri variant Y, strain TMH-4; Sh. sonnei I, strain TMH-5; and Sh. sonnei I, strain TMH-6; and were supplied through the courtesy of Dr. T. Iimura (Toshima Municipal Hospital, Tokyo). These were maintained in lyophilized state during experiments in order to prevent reduction of virulence. Stock strains of Shigella employed were kindly supplied from Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo: Sh. flexneri 2a, strain DMT-1; Sh. flexneri 3a, strain MZ and Sh. sonnei, strain DMT-2. These had been preserved by periodic transfer on nutrient agar (Difco) in our laboratory for about three years. Strains were reconfirmed by the authors to be biochemically and serologically typical Shigella species. As controls Escherichia coli, strain FE1422 (type 0-124, K-72), strain FE1193 (type 0-126) and strain FE1912 (type 0-89), which were stock cultures and enteropathogenic strains, were used. They were kindly given by Department of Bacteriology, Tokyo-to-325