PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA INFECTION AND ITS EFFECTS ON RADIOBIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Antibiotic therapy was effective in reducing postirradiation mortality of mice when P. aeruginosa was not present, but was ineffective when the test animals were infected with this organism. A method of controlling P. aeruginosa infection based on rigid sanitation is descibed, as are the results of studies of the mechanism by which this organism kills irradiated mice. Once this organism invaded the blood stream of an irradiated mouse, the animal died within 24 hr. P. aeruginosa epizootics were especially catastrophic during antibiotic therapy on the bacteremias of endogenous origin which occur during the second week after irradiation. Thus, when streptomycin was given from the 4th through the 27th day after iriadiation, only 14% of the mice died. But when streptomycin was administered for two days after P. aeruginosa infection the epizootic proceeded rapidly, killing 100% of the controls and 97% of the antibiotic-treated mice. Polymyxin parenterally was also to no avail. ln an attempt to shed some light on the mechanism by which P. aeruginosa kills irradiated mice so rapidly, mice were exposed to a midlethal dose of radiation. On the 1st, 5th, or 11th day after irradiation they were fed approximates 10/sup 7/ pseudomonads. When pseudomonads were fed on the first day. only 5% died of P. aeruginosa bacteremia, but when pseudomonads were fed on the 5th or 11th day, 57-60% died. Unirradiated mice fed 10/sup 7/ pseudomonads in the same manner remained healthy during the 30 day period. Bacteriologic culture of the gastrointestinal tract showed that many, more irradiated mice retained pseudomonads and in greater numbers than did unirradiated mice. On the third day after inoculation, in about one-third of the irradiated mice the number of pseudomonads had actually increased, whereas in over half of the unirradiated mice they could not be detected. Apparently, large numbers of pseudomonads introduced into the stomach become established and multiply in the upper and lower intestine of irradiated mice while they tend to disappear from the intestinal tract of unirradiated mice. (BBB)
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
- NSA Number:
- NSA-17-037082
- OSTI ID:
- 4631165
- Journal Information:
- Lab. Animal Care, Journal Name: Lab. Animal Care Vol. Vol: 13
- Country of Publication:
- Country unknown/Code not available
- Language:
- English
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