Rapid Quantitative Evaluation of Chemotherapeutic Agents in Experimental Cystitis of Rats

Abstract

A method is described for testing potential urinary-tract chemotherapeutic agents. Small contaminated stainless-steel cylinders containing a given bacterial inoculum are implanted in the urinary bladder of rats. Treatment is started a few hours after infection and continued for 2½ days. The animals are then killed and counts made of the viable bacteria in the cylinders. The results of these counts are statistically evaluated by the modified Wilcoxon test of Sugiura. Experiments have been carried out involving infection with the following micro-organisms: E. coli, Proteus mirabilis, Aerobacter cloacae, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus faecalis. In an extensive series of experiments the method has been shown to give very reproducible results. In addition a dose-response relationship is clearly demonstrable. This test system yields results rapidly and requires only minimal amounts of drug. Well-known drugs for urinary tract infections like rifampicin, nitrofurantoin and nalidixic acid, proved highly effective in this experimental model.