Phagocytosis of filaments of Escherichia coli produced with mezlocillin.

The phagocytosis of filaments of Escherichia coli produced with mezlocillin differs from the phagocytosis of normal bacilli in that pseudopods are employed for bacilli, but the entire body of the polymorphonuclear cell (PMN) participates in the engulfment of a filament. A single PMN was observed phagocytizing one or more filaments 20-50 micron long. The mass of a filament is about ten times larger than the mass of a bacillus. When equal bacterial mass, one filament or 10 bacilli, is exposed to PMNs comparable bacterial killing results after 2-3 h of incubation.