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THE INHIBITION OF SURFACE PHAGOCYTOSIS BY THE CAPSULAR "SLIME LAYER" OF PNEUMOCOCCUS TYPE III

Five strains of type III pneumococcus have been shown to possess wide capsular slime layers during the logarithmic phase of growth in serum broth. The slime layer stains metachromatically with methylene blue and can be visualized under the electron microscope as a fuzzy halo which extends well beyon...

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Autores principales: Wood, W. Barry, Smith, Mary Ruth
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Rockefeller University Press 1949
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2135934/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18152341
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author Wood, W. Barry
Smith, Mary Ruth
author_facet Wood, W. Barry
Smith, Mary Ruth
author_sort Wood, W. Barry
collection PubMed
description Five strains of type III pneumococcus have been shown to possess wide capsular slime layers during the logarithmic phase of growth in serum broth. The slime layer stains metachromatically with methylene blue and can be visualized under the electron microscope as a fuzzy halo which extends well beyond the surace of the capsule proper and causes centrifugates of the organism to be of extremely large volume. This outer capsular structure is most readily demonstrated in vivo and in nutrient broth containing glucose and serum. It disappears from the surface of the cell with aging of the culture, and is easily removed by dilute alkali, alcohol, and heat. Exposure of slime-covered type III pneumococci to homologous antibody and to type III polysaccharidase reveals that the slime layer contains the same type-specific polysaccharide that is present in the rest of the capsule. From a type III strain producing a prominent slime layer an intermediate mutant has been isolated which forms small non-mucoid colonies on blood agar and possesses a relatively small capsule with a barely discernible slime layer. The wide slime layer protects virulent type III pneumococci from surface phagocytosis. Whenever the type III cells lose their broad slime layer, whether from aging of the culture, from mutation, from exposure to injurious chemicals, or from the action of type III polysaccharidase, they become susceptible to phagocytosis by the surface mechanism. Once phagocyted the type III pneumococci are promptly destroyed, even in the absence of antibodies.
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spelling pubmed-21359342008-04-17 THE INHIBITION OF SURFACE PHAGOCYTOSIS BY THE CAPSULAR "SLIME LAYER" OF PNEUMOCOCCUS TYPE III Wood, W. Barry Smith, Mary Ruth J Exp Med Article Five strains of type III pneumococcus have been shown to possess wide capsular slime layers during the logarithmic phase of growth in serum broth. The slime layer stains metachromatically with methylene blue and can be visualized under the electron microscope as a fuzzy halo which extends well beyond the surace of the capsule proper and causes centrifugates of the organism to be of extremely large volume. This outer capsular structure is most readily demonstrated in vivo and in nutrient broth containing glucose and serum. It disappears from the surface of the cell with aging of the culture, and is easily removed by dilute alkali, alcohol, and heat. Exposure of slime-covered type III pneumococci to homologous antibody and to type III polysaccharidase reveals that the slime layer contains the same type-specific polysaccharide that is present in the rest of the capsule. From a type III strain producing a prominent slime layer an intermediate mutant has been isolated which forms small non-mucoid colonies on blood agar and possesses a relatively small capsule with a barely discernible slime layer. The wide slime layer protects virulent type III pneumococci from surface phagocytosis. Whenever the type III cells lose their broad slime layer, whether from aging of the culture, from mutation, from exposure to injurious chemicals, or from the action of type III polysaccharidase, they become susceptible to phagocytosis by the surface mechanism. Once phagocyted the type III pneumococci are promptly destroyed, even in the absence of antibodies. The Rockefeller University Press 1949-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC2135934/ /pubmed/18152341 Text en Copyright © Copyright, 1949, by The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research New York This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wood, W. Barry
Smith, Mary Ruth
THE INHIBITION OF SURFACE PHAGOCYTOSIS BY THE CAPSULAR "SLIME LAYER" OF PNEUMOCOCCUS TYPE III
title THE INHIBITION OF SURFACE PHAGOCYTOSIS BY THE CAPSULAR "SLIME LAYER" OF PNEUMOCOCCUS TYPE III
title_full THE INHIBITION OF SURFACE PHAGOCYTOSIS BY THE CAPSULAR "SLIME LAYER" OF PNEUMOCOCCUS TYPE III
title_fullStr THE INHIBITION OF SURFACE PHAGOCYTOSIS BY THE CAPSULAR "SLIME LAYER" OF PNEUMOCOCCUS TYPE III
title_full_unstemmed THE INHIBITION OF SURFACE PHAGOCYTOSIS BY THE CAPSULAR "SLIME LAYER" OF PNEUMOCOCCUS TYPE III
title_short THE INHIBITION OF SURFACE PHAGOCYTOSIS BY THE CAPSULAR "SLIME LAYER" OF PNEUMOCOCCUS TYPE III
title_sort inhibition of surface phagocytosis by the capsular "slime layer" of pneumococcus type iii
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2135934/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18152341
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