[Intraepithelial shigellae invasion of the intestinal mucosa in patients suffering from acute Sonne dysentery].

Data are presented on detection of intraepithelial localization of shigellae in the biopsy materials of the large and small intestine mucosa of the patients with various forms of acute Sonne dysentery, in comparison with the clinico-morphological picture of the disease. Biopsy specimens (60 of the large and 7 of the small intestine) were stained with thionine and examined bacterioscopically; an intracellular distribution of the microbes was revealed in 58 cases; in 53 of them a subsequent identification of the microbes by the fluorescent antibody method was carried out; in 47 cases (88.7%) invasion of Sh. sonnei into the cells of the epithelium of the mucosa of the large and the small intestine was confirmed. There proved to be a direct relationship between the severity of the course of the disease, the level of shigellae localization and the extent of contamination by them of the cells of the large intestinal mucosa. The role of the penetrating capacity of shigellae in the development of the pathological process in dysentery is discussed.