Studies on clinical pictures, radiographic findings, or antibody measurements of Mycoplasma pneumoniae (Mp) infection have been accumulated and outline of this disease is becoming clearer.
However, there still remained a lot of unsolved problems about it, particularly in the details of its, infectivity, manifestivity, pathogenesity to the lung, and histopathological findings of the lung.
As of the present time, because of mildness, chronicity, and extremely low mortality of this disease in man, much cannot be expected beyond experimental studies to approach these problems.
In this regard, an experiment elaborated by the author's own methodology was carried out and evaluation of the results was attempted in this paper.
Animals chosen after preliminary experiments as the most favorable are young hamsters of 3 weeks: old, and an infection method chosen as the most reliable is spray-inhalation method using 30 ml FH-strainsuspension-broth of 5.0×10
6 colony-forming-unit/nal for 30 minutes. The number of animals used is. 60 and counting of intrapulmonary Mp was done at 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, 21, 28, 35, and 42th day after the, infection.
Further, the isolations of the organisms from the pharynx, measurement of antibody (CF and GI antibody), histo-pathological and fluoro-immuno-pathological studies of the lung, chest X-ray examinations, and hematological studies were performed on the animals.
The results were summed up as follows:
1) Isolation rate from the pharynx: first day; 63%, and 2nd day; 29%, then on upward trend to 100=% on 10th day. Decrease on 2nd day is not coincided with quantitative measurements of intratracheal. or intra-pulmonary Mp. The meaning of it is unclear.
2) Counting of intra-pulmonary Mp: 1st day; 10
4 strong CFU/ml, 5th day; 10
5 strong, 7th day 10
6 strong, after 10th day till 6th week; around 10
5. Thus, long term residing of Mp in the lung was confirmed.
3) Histo-pathological findings: tracheitis, peritracheitis and interstitial pulmonitis were observed. and its intensity was almost pallarel to the value of intra-pulmonary Mp counting. Specific immuno-fluorescene of Mp was observed only in 2nd week along with the tracheal epithel layer.
4) Only a few cases showed I: 8 or 1: 16 CF value between 3rd and 6th week. This is not significant in contrast with the level of intra-pulmonary colony counting. No appreciable rise of GI value at all. This discrepancy has to be studied further.
5) In the light of somewhat unexpected results of immunological experiments, the author further investigated chest X-rays, CRP value, protein fractions, and hematological findings. No significant differences were observed in chest X-ray, CRP, and protein fraction between the infection animals and the contrast group. In hematological findings, noticeable neutrophilia, particularly an increase of segmented neutrophils, was recognized. These results apparently tell complicity of living reactions in such an infection experiment, particularly of such mild organisms.
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