Cultivation of Pleuropneumonia-Like Organisms from Female Genital Organs. ∗ †

Abstract

The technic formerly described for staining bacterial cultures in situ on the surface of agar was employed in studying routine plates submitted for gonococcus examination. 1 In the course of 2 months pleuropneumonia-like organisms were demonstrated in the cervical secretions of 5 patients. The medium used for the gonococcus is similar to the medium employed formerly in cultivating Streptobacillus moniliformis and pleuropneumonia-like organisms. 1 It is essentially a sedimented boiled blood agar to which is added 30% buffered ascitic fluid. The plates are incubated for 2 days in partial CO₂ tension.

Pleuropneumonia-like organisms were present in the genitals of about one-third of the females. Thus far similar organisms have not been found in plates inoculated with secretions from the urethra or prostate of males or from eyes of babies suspected of gonococcus infection. However, the female and male material examined was not comparable. The majority of female patients had pelvic infections, while the cultures from males were mostly release cultures from treated gonococcal patients. Women without pelvic disease were not studied.

The group of pleuropneumonia-like organisms is characterized at present by purely morphological criteria. The organisms cultivated from the female genitalia are indistinguishable in morphology and in the appearance of colonies from the strains isolated from rats and mice. 2 The young colonies consist of very small pleomorphic granules and filaments which grow into the medium and are stained deeply in situ with methylene blue. The surface of fully developed colonies consists of large bodies (3 to 10 microns) which are at first deeply stained but which later become vacuolized and produce a foam-like structure. After 48 hours the colonies are often only 10 to 20 microns in diameter. In transplant they develop to a considerably larger size.