Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1978 Mar;75(3):1534–1536. doi: 10.1073/pnas.75.3.1534

Haemophilus influenzae bacteremia and meningitis resulting from survival of a single organism

E Richard Moxon 1,2, Patrick A Murphy 1,2
PMCID: PMC411507  PMID: 306628

Abstract

Infant rats were infected intranasally with mixtures of streptomycin-sensitive and streptomycin-resistant strains of Haemophilus influenzae type b and cultures of nasopharyngeal washings, blood, and cerebrospinal fluid were obtained. If the infecting organisms cooperated with each other during the establishment of infection, nasopharyngeal, blood, and cerebrospinal fluid cultures should have contained mixtures of the variants. If each organism acted independently, then with small infecting inocula all the organisms in nasopharynx, blood, or cerebrospinal fluid should be descended from a single bacterium. Cultures should then contain only one of the variants.

Single variant nasopharyngeal cultures were obtained from 8 out of 19 (42%) rats when the intranasal inoculum was <100 organisms. As the inoculum was increased, single variant cultures were less frequently observed. When the inoculum was ≥105 organisms, nasopharyngeal cultures were always mixtures. Single variant blood cultures were obtained in 46 of 67 (68.7%) episodes of bacteremia when rats were inoculated intranasally with 108 organisms. Single variants were isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid of 13 of 19 (68.4%) rats with meningitis whose blood contained both streptomycin-sensitive and streptomycin-resistant variants. When the blood contained a single variant, this same variant was cultured from the cerebrospinal fluid on 39 of 40 (97.5%) occasions. These studies demonstrated that invasive. H. influenzae b infections of infant rats resulted from independent action, as opposed to cooperative interaction of intransally inoculated organisms. The results also suggested that the meninges were invaded by the hematogenous route.

Keywords: streptomycin, central nervous system, nasopharyngeal colonization, pathogenesis of central nervous system infection, encapsulated bacteria

Full text

PDF
1536

Selected References

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

  1. GOLDBERG L. J., WATKINS H. M., DOLMATZ M. S., SCHLAMM N. A. Studies on the experimental epidemiology of respiratory infections. VI. The relationship between dose of microorganisms and subsequent infection or death of a host. J Infect Dis. 1954 Jan-Feb;94(1):9–21. doi: 10.1093/infdis/94.1.9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. LEDERBERG J., LEDERBERG E. M. Replica plating and indirect selection of bacterial mutants. J Bacteriol. 1952 Mar;63(3):399–406. doi: 10.1128/jb.63.3.399-406.1952. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. MEYNELL G. G., MEYNELL E. W. The growth of micro-organisms in vivo with particular reference to the relation between dose and latent period. J Hyg (Lond) 1958 Sep;56(3):323–346. doi: 10.1017/s0022172400037827. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. MEYNELL G. G., STOCKER B. A. Some hypotheses on the aetiology of fatal infections in partially resistant hosts and their application to mice challenged with Salmonella paratyphi-B or Salmonella typhimurium by intraperitoneal injection. J Gen Microbiol. 1957 Feb;16(1):38–58. doi: 10.1099/00221287-16-1-38. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. MEYNELL G. G. The applicability of the hypothesis of independent action to fatal infections in mice given Salmonella typhimurium by mouth. J Gen Microbiol. 1957 Apr;16(2):396–404. doi: 10.1099/00221287-16-2-396. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. McGowan J. E., Jr, Bratton L., Klein J. O., Finland M. Bacteremia in febrile children seen in a "walk-in" pediatric clinic. N Engl J Med. 1973 Jun 21;288(25):1309–1312. doi: 10.1056/NEJM197306212882501. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Moxon E. R., Ostrow P. T. Haemophilus influenzae meningitis in infant rats: role of bacteremia in pathogenesis of age-dependent inflammatory responses in cerebrospinal fluid. J Infect Dis. 1977 Feb;135(2):303–307. doi: 10.1093/infdis/135.2.303. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Moxon E. R., Smith A. L., Averill D. R., Smith D. H. Haemophilus influenzae meningitis in infant rats after intranasal inoculation. J Infect Dis. 1974 Feb;129(2):154–162. doi: 10.1093/infdis/129.2.154. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Shaw S., Smith A. L., Anderson P., Smith D. H. The paradox of Hemophilus infuenzae type B bacteremia in the presence of serum bactericidal activity. J Clin Invest. 1976 Oct;58(4):1019–1029. doi: 10.1172/JCI108525. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES