Henry Phipps Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
J Exp Med. 1928 Jul 31;48(2):155-82. doi: 10.1084/jem.48.2.155.
In this study the attempt has been made to follow the fate of tubercle bacilli in the lung, liver, spleen, kidney and bone marrow of rabbits infected intravenously with large and small doses of human and bovine tubercle bacilli by determining the number of colonies recoverable from similar quantities of tissue on egg media at varying intervals during the course of infection. This method offers certain possibili-ties for the elucidation of this problem precluded by the modes of attack used hitherto. Histological methods, while giving precise data in regard to tissue changes produced by the tubercle bacilli, are poor instruments for determining the fate of the bacilli in a given organ. Without stressing the notorious difficulties in staining the organism at all times, histological technique can give no definite answer to the question whether certain stained bacilli are living or dead, and it is the number of living bacilli that is of importance. Again animal inoculation, while an excellent index of the presence of living virulent bacilli, is a very inaccurate index of the number of living bacilli in a given specimen of tissue, for it is possible to infect guinea pigs with even a very few bacilli.
在这项研究中，我们试图通过在感染后不同时间点，从鸡蛋培养基上相同数量的组织中回收的菌落数量，来确定静脉内感染大剂量和小剂量人型和牛型结核分枝杆菌的兔子的肺、肝、脾、肾和骨髓中的结核分枝杆菌的命运。这种方法为解决迄今为止使用的攻击模式所排除的问题提供了某些可能性。组织学方法虽然可以提供有关结核分枝杆菌引起的组织变化的确切数据，但对于确定特定器官中分枝杆菌的命运，它并不是一种很好的手段。组织学技术不仅很难一直对生物体进行染色，而且它也无法明确回答某些染色的细菌是活的还是死的，而重要的是活细菌的数量。同样，动物接种虽然是活的、有毒的分枝杆菌存在的极好指标，但它对于特定组织样本中活细菌数量的指示非常不准确，因为即使只有很少的细菌也可以感染豚鼠。
