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SummaryThe partial pressure of O2in milk from normal cows and from cows with mastitis was measured and the concentrations of O2calculated. Oxygen levels of milk from normal cows were similar to those in venous plasma, but inflammation of the mammary gland led to a dramatic drop in O2concentration to < 10% of control values. Intracellular survival ofStaphylococcus aureusstrain M60 in bovine neutrophils was greater under anaerobic than aerobic conditions. The implications of low O2concentrations in milk from infected mammary glands for the bactericidal activity of bovine neutrophils is discussed.

Fluorescein-labelled Staphylococcus aureus were used to follow changes in phagolysosome (PL) pH of bovine and human neutrophils following phagocytosis. Under aerobic conditions there was an alkalinisation of the PL followed by a slow decline. Under anaerobic conditions no alkalinisation of the PL was seen, and pharmacological inhibition of the NADPH oxidase with diphenyleneiodonium (DPI) resulted in a rapid acidification of the PL following phagocytosis. The inclusion of amiloride, an inhibitor of Na+/H+ antiporter activity, produced a more rapid alkalinisation phase following phagocytosis under aerobic conditions and reduced, but did not abolish, the acidification phases seen under anaerobic conditions or following treatment of neutrophils with DPI. The results suggest that PL pH is influenced by NADPH oxidase activity and to a lesser extent by a Na+/H+ antiporter. The antibacterial effectiveness of neutrophil granule proteins may be affected under conditions that influence the functioning of these two systems.

The activity of a range of antibiotics on intracellular Staphylococcus aureus was examined using an in vitro system in which staphylococci survived within bovine neutrophils and extracellular organisms were killed by lysostaphin. Cloxacillin in the presence of lysostaphin caused a reduction in the number of viable intracellular S. aureus but cloxacillin alone failed to reduce such bacteria significantly. The cloxacillin appeared to sensitize the staphylococci to lysis by extracellular traces of lysostaphin following neutrophil disruption. Extracellular staphylococci which remained viable after exposure to cloxacillin in the absence of lysostaphin were subsequently killed more rapidly by neutrophils, but this was not found with bacteria exposed to cloxacillin while inside cells. Vancomycin with lysostaphin produced a similar but smaller sensitization effect but this antibiotic also appeared to increase survival of intracellular staphylococci when compared with controls, possibly by impeding neutrophil bactericidal mechanisms. The only other antibiotic to show significant intracellular killing was rifampicin, and in this case the action was independent of lysostaphin.