Isolation of a Corynebacterium and its Transitional Forms from a Case of Subacute Bacterial Endocarditis treated with Antibiotics

Abstract

SUMMARYA bacteriological study was made of blood specimens taken repeatedly during a 2-year period from a child with subacute bacterial endocarditis who received intensive treatment with antibiotics. The conventional bacillary form of Corynebacterium sp. was present in the blood and bone marrow of the patient before the beginning of antibiotic therapy and on occasions when the administration of antibiotics was suspended. These were the periods when the patient showed overt symptoms of clinical illness. When antibiotic therapy was adequate to produce clinical remission of symptoms, the infecting organism was not eradicated, but persisted in the blood in a small granule-like form that could be demonstrated and cultured only by highly specialized techniques. The cultural procedures required to bring about reversion of the granule-like form to the conventional bacillary form and the morphology of the various transitional forms that the organism assumed during the reversion process are described and illustrated.

Necroscopic Findings of Pleomorphic, Variably Acid‐Fast Bacteria in a Fatal Case of Kaposi's Sarcoma

“…14). These coccoid forms are morphologically similar to coccoid forms of cell‐wall‐deficient bacteria, as illustrated by Livingston et al, 26–28 Wittler et al, 29 Sato et al, 30 and others.…”

GROWTH OF CELLULAR FORMS IN CULTURES OF CHROMATIN BODIES ISOLATED FROM BACILLUS MEGATERIUM

“…After specific treatment ceases, the organisms appear again. Wittler et al (1960) recovered some unusual bacterial forms from such cases. Some of these forms are similar to the protoplastlike cells and granular elements described in this paper.…”

INDUCTION BY ANTIBIOTICS AND COMPARATIVE SENSITIVITY OF L-PHASE VARIANTS OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS

“…Reversion to the bacterial form could thus occur after antibiotic treatment was discontinued. Conclusive evidence for in vivo L-phase induction of staphvlococci is still lacking, although there are recent reports suggesting this possibility (Wittler et al, 1960;Kagan, 1962;Braude, Siemienski, and Jacobs, 1961;Mattman et al, 1961).…”