ULTRASTRUCTURAL OBSERVATIONS ON PHAGOCYTOSIS OF BACTERIA IN EXPERIMENTAL (E. COLI) MENINGITIS

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Abstract
A bacterial meningitis was produced by injection of 0.1 cc of a suspension of E. coli intracranially in Syrian hamsters. The animals were sacrificed at intervals from 2 to 72 hours after infection; tissue was removed from the living animals and prepared in the usual manner for electron microscopy. Ultrastructural relationships between bacteria and polymorphonuclear leukocytes and macrophages in the subarachnoid space were studied. With both cell types there were cytoplasmic extensions around the free organism, with ingestion of the bacterium and fluid in a vacuole whose limiting membrane was derived from the phagocytic cell wall. The relation between this process and pinocytosis was briefly discussed. Degenerating bacteria in polymorphonuclear leukocytes were associated with small amounts of osmiophilic, finely granular material resembling that seen in lysosomes. Considerably greater amounts of this “lysosome material” were seen in the phagocytic vacuoles of macrophages, although the bacteria were often relatively intact. It is suggested that this material is produced within the cytoplasm of the phagocyte in response to the bacteria, contains hydrolytic enzymes, and may be concerned with bacterial digestion. The fine structure of various types of inclusion bodies seen in macrophages was described.

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