Polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMNs) of the newborn show poor movement in vitro toward a chemotactic stimulus, such as zymosan-activated human serum (ZAS). This may result from a defect either in spontaneous movement or in the response of the cells to the stimulus. To identify the defect we studied chemotaxis, chemokinesis and spontaneous movement of cord blood PMNs by agarose assay and by the leading front modification of the Boyden chamber technique. Under agarose, cord PMNs showed much spontaneous movement. This, associated with poor stimulated movement, indicated a defect in the responsiveness of cord PMNs to ZAS. In the membrane filter, cord PMNs migrated spontaneously, and in the presence of ZAS, significantly less than adult cells. The weak spontaneous movement most probably resulted from poor deformability of cord PMNs and contributed to the weak stimulated movement of these cells in the filter. Our results indicate that the impaired chemotaxis was due to a defect in both responsiveness and deformability of cord PMNs rather than to a defect in their intrinsic ability to move.
The bacteriology of 70 consecutive cases of active chronic otitis media was studied. Using appropriate technology, anaerobic bacteria were recovered in 33%, Bacteroides species accounting for one half of them. They were always found in mixed infections involving the average of 3.8 bacteria, 1.9 anaerobic, and 1.9 facultative species. The bacteriology was relatively stable from one ear to the other in the ten bilateral cases studied. The results were alike in the groups differing with respect to local antimicrobial therapy or appearance of the middle ear discharge. The cases with chronic otitis in spite of previous radical surgery presented more often with anaerobic infection than the unoperated ones, and none of them yielded sterile cultures. The recognition of anerobic middle ear infections may be clinically significant because the susceptibilities of the organisms to antimicrobial agents and to air are characteristically different from those of aerobic or facultative bacteria.
Rats with delayed hypersensitivity to bovine serum albumin (BSA) and diphtheria toxoid were specifically desensitized by an intravenous injection of BSA. The degree of desensitization was positively related to the dose of antigen. The 4-hour skin reactions to BSA were weaker, and the passive haemagglutinin titres, antigen-binding capacity and average avidity of the antibodies were lower in the desensitized rats than in controls. The suppression of delayed hypersensitivity was apparently not caused by increased circulating antibody activity, but by a cellular defect or a humoral blocking factor.
We studied the bacteria in consecutive peritonsillar abscesses using semiquantitation of the primary culture findings and correlated the results to clinical parameters. Puncture-aspirated pus from 42 abscesses yielded 133 isolates. Group A streptococci were isolated 10 times and, unlike other bacteria, were isolated 4 times in pure culture; other beta-hemolytic streptococci were found in 8 abscesses, and anaerobes were found in 28. The infections were polymicrobial, with two to seven bacteria in 83%. Anaerobes were more abundant than nonanaerobes; members of the genera Streptococcus, Bacteroides, Peptostreptococcus, and Fusobacterium were the most important quantitatively, considering both frequency and abundance. In patients with ongoing antibiotic treatment, nonanaerobes (but not anaerobes) were less abundant than in untreated patients. The abundance of obligate anaerobes (specifically cocci and gram-positive rods) correlated to the severity of illness as defined by fever and short duration before hospitalization. With other groups of bacteria, no such correlation was found. The correlation was not explained by a difference between the antibiotic-treated and the untreated patients. The results indicate the value of the semiquantitation of culture data and the frequency and pathogenic significance of obligate anaerobes in peritonsillar abscesses.
The splenic plaque-forming cell response of inbred guinea pigs to sheep erythrocytes was abolished by whole-body X-irradiation with 600 rad. The minimum doses of various cell types from normal syngeneic donors to restore the response significantly were 100 × 10<sup>6</sup> spleen or lymph node cells or 500 × 10<sup>6</sup> bone marrow or thymus cells. The combination of 100 × 10<sup>6</sup> thymus and 100 × 10<sup>6</sup> bone marrow cells provided statistically significant restoration, but not much more than 100 × 10<sup>6</sup> bone marrow cells alone. The lack of thymus-marrow synergism suggests that in guinea pigs the antigen-reactive cells and antibody-forming cell precursors are not in the same way enriched in the thymus and bone marrow as in mice.
Sixty-one chronically inflamed maxillary sinuses produced 131 bacterial strains from mucosal pieces that were taken during a Caldwell-Luc operation and cultured aerobically and anaerobically. Sinus secretions showed only 62 and nasal secretions 106 bacterial strains. Fourteen mucosal strains, including 11 Haemophilus influenzae, grew heavily. None of 24 mucosal anaerobes showed heavy growth. Of 52 antral mucosae with culturable bacteria, 37 disclosed mixed and 15 pure growth. The bacteriological characteristics of the diseased sinus and the nose did not correlate. The duration or extent of the disease, the macroscopic appearance of the diseased sinus, or the presence or absence of allergy were unrelated to bacteriological findings, except that H influenzae was concentrated in purulent sinuses. Intraoperative culture of antral mucosa seems to give the most reliable picture of the bacteriological condition in chronic maxillary sinusitis.
