Abstract
The mechanism for the infection-promoting effect of the capsular polysaccharide of Klebsiella pneumoniae (CPS-K) was investigated using the experimental system in which mice were infected intraperitoneally (i.p.) with a virulent strain of Salmonella enteritidis immediately after i.p. injection of CPS-K. In the peritoneal phagocytes of CPS-K-untreated control mice, approximately 70, 3, and 10% of phagocytized bacteria survived 6, 12, and 24 hr after challenge, respectively, when calculated from the ratio of the number of cell-associated viable bacteria, which was estimated by direct plate count, to the number of phagocytized bacteria, which was estimated by microscopic observation of stained smears. In contrast, almost all of the phagocytized bacteria were viable throughout the experimental period in mice treated with CPS-K. The electron microscopical findings of the phagocytes obtained 12 hr after challenge showed that in the cells of mice treated with CPS-K almost all of phagocytized bacteria were morphologically intact, with some of them in the stages of cell division, whereas in those of untreated control mice, almost all of the phagocytized bacteria underwent digestive changes. When the reaction product of acid phosphatase was examined by electron microscopy in the phagocytes obtained 12 hr after challenge, the enzyme activity in the phagosomes was very low in mice treated with CPS-K in comparison with that in untreated control mice. Enzyme assays of the lysosomal and extralysosomal fractions of peritoneal cells obtained at various times after challenge also showed that release of acid phosphatase from the lysosomal fraction to the extralysosomal fraction after bacterial challenge was inhibited in peritoneal cells of mice treated with CPS-K.
