Bisset K A, Bartlett R
J Med Microbiol. 1978 Aug;11(3):335-49. doi: 10.1099/00222615-11-3-335.
Thirty-eight strains of the Gram-positive bacterium identified as Bacillus licheniformis var. endoparasiticus (Benedek), referred to as BLE, were isolated in various stages of reversion form the L-forms, from 28 out of 100 samples of whole blood or erythrocytes from normal healthy subjects, after prolonged incubation. Similar results were obtained from 100 samples from hospital patients with conditions not usually associated with blood infection. BLE was isolated from only one of 125 samples of plasma, including those separated from infected erythrocytes. Isolates from cultures incubated for up to 4 months were usually in the form of spheroplasts or diphtheroid bacilli; the fully reverted phase, resembling B. licheniformis, with the capacity to form endospores, was isolated occasionally from cultures aged 1--6 months, and it constituted about half the isolates recovered from cultures aged 6--25 months. BLE was isolated in subculture, and with the usual frequency, in previously unopened, primary cultures. It did not occur in 1200 subcultures of 150 control cultures made with autoclaved or irradiated blood cells; it was not detected in the environment of the laboratory or blood-sampling areas, or on the skin or in the respiratory passages of the operators and other persons associated with the laboratory, where typical, saprophytic B. licheniformis was very rare. It is concluded that this Bacillus species exists as an L-form, associated with the erythrocytes of a large proportion of normal persons, as previously recorded by several observers. Some of the morphological variants associated with the L-cycles have in the past been described as different organisms, for example L-forms of various bacteria or mycoplasmas, and the diphtheroid stage has been thought to belong to the genera Corynebacterium and Listeria. The sporogenous stage, although frequently described, has normally been discounted as a contaminant. These observations do not admit of any conclusion in respect of the claims that such bacteria may have a role in arthritis, cancer or other diseases.
从100份正常健康受试者的全血或红细胞样本中的28份样本经过长时间培养后，在回复的不同阶段分离出38株革兰氏阳性细菌，鉴定为地衣芽孢杆菌内寄生变种（贝内德克），简称为BLE。从100份通常与血液感染无关的医院患者样本中也获得了类似结果。从125份血浆样本（包括从感染红细胞中分离出的血浆样本）中仅分离出1份BLE。培养长达4个月的培养物分离株通常呈原生质球或类白喉杆菌形式；偶尔从1 - 6个月龄的培养物中分离出完全回复阶段，类似于地衣芽孢杆菌，具有形成芽孢的能力，在6 - 25个月龄的培养物中回收的分离株中约占一半。BLE是在继代培养中以通常的频率在先前未开封的原代培养物中分离得到的。在用高压灭菌或辐照血细胞制成的150份对照培养物的1200次继代培养中未出现BLE；在实验室或采血区域的环境中，或在操作人员及与实验室相关的其他人员的皮肤或呼吸道中均未检测到BLE，而典型的腐生性地衣芽孢杆菌在这些地方非常罕见。结论是，如先前几位观察者所记录的，这种芽孢杆菌以L型形式存在，与很大一部分正常人的红细胞相关。过去，一些与L周期相关的形态变体被描述为不同的生物体，例如各种细菌或支原体的L型，类白喉阶段被认为属于棒状杆菌属和李斯特菌属。产孢阶段虽然经常被描述，但通常被认为是污染物而不予考虑。这些观察结果无法就此类细菌可能在关节炎、癌症或其他疾病中起作用的说法得出任何结论。
