Pulmonary infection of mice with Staphylococcus aureus.

The survival of Staphylococcus aureus in the lungs of mice was studied under various conditions. Doses of 10(7) to 10(9) washed staphylococci were quantitatively introduced into the lungs after intratracheal inoculation in mice under either ether or sodium pentobarbital anesthesia. Mice were sacrificed at intervals, the lungs were excised and homogenized, and the cocci were enumerated by plate count. The 50% lethal dose was 6 x 10(8) cocci per mouse, and mice died within 24 h but without proliferation of the inoculum. Mice given 10(8) cocci intratracheally under pentobarbital anesthesia regularly survived and eliminated the organisms over a 48-h period. The use of ether anesthesia resulted in persistence of the inoculum for up to 48 h, but the organisms were then eliminated. Inability to proliferate did not appear to result from a lack of iron because pretreatment of the mice with ferric ammonium citrate or Imferon did not alter inoculum survival. Staphylococci inoculated intratracheally in mice infected with influenza virus 3 to 21 days previously showed no enhanced persistence or multiplication. Cocci preclumped with fibrinogen, inocula mixed with 10 times the number of Formalin-killed staphylococci, or inocula of the encapsulated Smith strain did not survive any better than conventional inocula, suggesting that phagocytosis might not be the sole mechanism for elimination. However, a sedimentable fraction from normal or infected lung homogenates proved either inhibitory or cidal for staphylococci in vitro.