Passage of Exogenous Bacteria Through the Wall of an Isolated Stomach

Abstract

Nedzel and Arnold 1 showed the passage of exogenous bacteria from the small intestines into the blood circulation. Boone and others 2 proved the passage of the same bacteria into the portal circulation from the small intestines. Fisher 3 showed the same for yeast. Shuger and Arnold 4 gave evidence of absorption of exogenous bacteria from the large intestine. Fisher 5 does the same for yeast. Nedzel and Arnold 6 prove the passage of bacteria through the wall of the gallbladder. Tsuji 7 states that bacilli introduced into the gallbladder can invade the blood, bile and urine through the mucous membrane of the gallbladder and that the invasion is more powerful in cases of pathological changes of the gallbladder wall.

The permeability of the stomach was studied in the following manner: 20 dogs, fasted for 24 hours, were used; all were given nembutal anesthesia. The abdomen of each dog was opened, the duodenum exposed and tied off near the pylorus, carefully avoiding the possible ligation of the large blood vessels in this region. An opening was made in the duodenum adjacent to the ligature. A row of ligatures was placed around this opening to prevent bleeding. We were able to introduce material into the stomach and also to obtain specimens with a pipette.

The experiments fall into 2 groups. One group (11 dogs), where we introduced into the stomach of each dog a suspension of B. prodigiosus (washings of one agar plate of 24 hours growth) in 50 cc. of an isotonic saline solution where the pH of the stomach contents after introduction of this suspension was below 3.0. In the other group (9 dogs) the same amount of B. prodigiosus was used but they were suspended in 50 cc. of an alkaline buffer solution.

Conclusions. 1. The exogenous bacteria are absorbed from an isolated stomach into the blood. 2. The greatest number are obsorbed in the first 15 minutes after the introduction of bacteria into the stomach. 3. The lower pH of the stomach contents, the higher absorption of the bacteria.