Skip to main content
PMC home page
The Journal of Experimental Medicine logoLink to The Journal of Experimental Medicine
. 1959 Feb 28;109(3):271–292. doi: 10.1084/jem.109.3.271

STUDY ON GROWTH OF RICKETTSIAE

V. PENETRATION OF RICKETTSIA TSUTSUGAMUSHI INTO MAMMALIAN CELLS IN VITRO

Zanvil A Cohn 1, F Marilyn Bozeman 1, Janis M Campbell 1, James W Humphries 1, Thomas K Sawyer 1
PMCID: PMC2136944  PMID: 13620854

Abstract

A system has been described in which the penetration of Rickettsia tsutsugamushi (Karp strain) into tissue culture cells can be quantitated, and the factors affecting this process studied. The results indicated that rickettsial penetration in vitro depended largely on the viability of the organisms. Certain components of the fluid environment such as the divalent cations and protein were found to be of importance. The temperature dependence of the penetration process was found to vary with the nature of the suspending medium. A number of compounds related to L-glutamic acid enhanced penetration, whereas metabolic inhibitors depressed this process. Aureomycin at concentrations between 50 and 250 µg./ml. inhibited the penetration of rickettsiae while chloramphenicol at similar concentrations was ineffective. The results are discussed in terms of the biological and biochemical properties of this group of agents.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (1.1 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. BOVARNICK M. R., ALLEN E. G. Reversible inactivation of the toxicity and hemolytic activity of typhus rickettsiae by starvation. J Bacteriol. 1957 Nov;74(5):637–645. doi: 10.1128/jb.74.5.637-645.1957. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. BOVARNICK M. R., MILLER J. C. Oxidation and transamination of glutamate by typhus rickettsiae. J Biol Chem. 1950 Jun;184(2):661–676. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. BOVARNICK M. R., MILLER J. C., SNYDER J. C. The influence of certain salts, amino acids, sugars, and proteins on the stability of rickettsiae. J Bacteriol. 1950 Apr;59(4):509–522. doi: 10.1128/jb.59.4.509-522.1950. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. BOVARNICK M. R., SNYDER J. C. Respiration of typhus rickettsiae. J Exp Med. 1949 Jun 1;89(6):561–565. doi: 10.1084/jem.89.6.561. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. BOZEMAN F. M., HOPPS H. E., DANAUSKAS J. X., JACKSON E. B., SMADEL J. E. Study on the growth of Rickettsiae. I. A tissue culture system for quantitative estimations of Rickettsia tsutsugamushi. J Immunol. 1956 Jun;76(6):475–488. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. BURNET F. M. Haemagglutination in relation to host cell-virus interaction. Annu Rev Microbiol. 1952;6:229–246. doi: 10.1146/annurev.mi.06.100152.001305. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. CLARKE D. H., FOX J. P. The phenomenon of in vitro hemolysis produced by the rickettsiae of typhus fever, with a note on the mechanism of rickettsial toxicity in mice. J Exp Med. 1948 Jul;88(1):25–41. doi: 10.1084/jem.88.1.25. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. HAYES J. E., HAHN F. E., COHN Z. A., JACKSON E. B., SMADEL J. E. Metabolic studies of rickettsiae. IV. Terminal respiratory enzymes in Rickettsia mooseri. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1957 Dec;26(3):570–576. doi: 10.1016/0006-3002(57)90104-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. HOPPS H. E., HAHN F. E., WISSEMAN C. L., Jr, JACKSON E. B., SMADEL J. E. Metabolic studies of rickettsiae. III. Studies of transamination, oxidative phosphorylation and glutamate-2-C14 incorporation by purified suspensions of Rickettsia mooseri. J Bacteriol. 1956 Jun;71(6):708–716. doi: 10.1128/jb.71.6.708-716.1956. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. JACKSON E. B., SMADEL J. E. Immunization against scrub typhus. II. Preparation of lyophilized living vaccine. Am J Hyg. 1951 May;53(3):326–331. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a119457. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. KARP A., SNYDER J. C. In vitro effect of aureomycin, terramycin, and chloramphenicol on typhus rickettsiae. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1952 Feb;79(2):216–219. doi: 10.3181/00379727-79-19327. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. PRICE W. H. The epidemiology of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. I. The characterization of strain virulence of Rickettsia rickettsii. Am J Hyg. 1953 Sep;58(2):248–268. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a119604. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. RIGHTS F. L., SMADEL J. E. Studies on scrib typhus; tsutsugamushi disease; heterogenicity of strains of R. tsutsugamushi as demonstrated by cross-vaccination studies. J Exp Med. 1948 Apr 1;87(4):339–351. doi: 10.1084/jem.87.4.339. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. SANFORD K. K., EARLE W. R., LIKELY G. D. The growth in vitro of single isolated tissue cells. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1948 Dec;9(3):229–246. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. SCHAECHTER M., BOZEMAN F. M., SMADEL J. E. Study on the growth of Rickettsiae. II. Morphologic observations of living Rickettsiae in tissue culture cells. Virology. 1957 Feb;3(1):160–172. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(57)90030-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. SCHAECHTER M., TOUSIMIS A. J., COHN Z. A., ROSEN H., CAMPBELL J., HAHN F. E. Morphological, chemical, and serological studies of the cell walls of Rickettsia mooseri. J Bacteriol. 1957 Dec;74(6):822–829. doi: 10.1128/jb.74.6.822-829.1957. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. SNYDER J. C., BOVARNICK M. R., MILLER J. C., CHANG R. S. M. Observations on the hemolytic properties of typhus rickettsiae. J Bacteriol. 1954 Jun;67(6):724–730. doi: 10.1128/jb.67.6.724-730.1954. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. WISSEMAN C. L., Jr, HAHN F. E., JACKSON E. B., BOZEMAN M. F., SMADEL J. E. Metabolic studies of rickettsiae. II. Studies on the pathway of glutamate oxidation by purified suspensions of Rickettsia mooseri. J Immunol. 1952 Mar;68(3):251–264. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Experimental Medicine are provided here courtesy of The Rockefeller University Press

RESOURCES