IDENTIFICATION OF HAEMOPHILUS VAGINALIS

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Haemophilus vaginalis has been classified on the basis of morphology and an apparent requirement of blood or serum and yeast extract for growth. Elucidation of the essential growth requirements has been complicated by the detection of naturally occurring inhibitory substances present in commercial bacteriologic media. Much of this inhibition can be negated by the addition of commercial corn starch to the medium. Attempts to employ a chemically defined "synthetic" medium in the manner of Herbst and Snell, have been unsuccessful. A pancreatic digest of casein (0.5 per cent), corn starch (0.1 per cent) and rabbit serum (1.0 per cent) produced a basal medium yielding a minimal growth of H. vaginalis. Growth was markedly stimulated by the addition of glutamic and aspartic acids. Further stimulation was obtained by the addition of codehydrogenase (DPN, cozymase), hematin, and cysteine. Since growth was not obtained in the absence of serum and the complex mixture present in the pancreatic digest of casein, other major growth requirements must be presumed to exist. However, since codehydrogenase (V factor) and hematin (X factor) exhibit marked stimulatory activity, the taxonomic position of this organism in the genus Haemophilus is strengthened.

This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit: