Pneumonia due to mycoplasma in gnotobiotic mice. II. Localization of Mycoplasma pulmonis in the lungs of infected gnotobiotic mice by electron microscopy.

Organick, Avrum B. (Marquette University School of Medicine, Milwaukee, Wis.), Kenneth A. Siegesmund, and Irving I. Lutsky. Pneumonia due to mycoplasma in gnotobiotic mice. II. Localization of Mycoplasma pulmonis in the lungs of infected gnotobiotic mice by electron microscopy. J. Bacteriol. 92:1164-1176. 1966.-Lesions in lungs of gnotobiotic mice inoculated intranasally with Mycoplasma pulmonis were examined by electron microscopy after osmic acid fixation. At 1 week after infection, mycoplasma cells were found in large numbers in the bronchi at the surface of bronchial epithelial cells and, in smaller numbers, in the alveoli where active phagocytosis by polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) occurred. Cytopathic changes in underlying bronchial epithelial cells, not apparent by light microscopy, were observed. At 3 weeks after infection, mycoplasma cells were rarely seen in the bronchi, and were no longer seen free in the alveolar spaces or within PMN. Lungs examined after glutaraldehyde fixation 1 week after infection confirmed the presence of mycoplasma cells in the alveolar spaces and within phagocytic vacuoles of PMN, but also revealed numerous ring forms within granular pneumocytes. These forms seemed to represent intracytoplasmic developmental stages of M. pulmonis, in which elementary bodies appeared in large numbers.