Intracellular Growth and Type Variation of Neisseria Gonorrhoeae in Tissue Cell-Cultures

Gonococcal and meningococcal pathogenesis as defined by human cell, cell culture, and organ culture assays

“…Later in the course of infection, the membranes of some of the nonciliated cells seem to retract and pinch off a membrane-bound vacuole containing gonococci. Similar membrane-bound vacuoles containing gonococci are noted following gonococcal infection of tissue culture cells (4,43,69). This process is quite similar to the phagocytosis of bacteria by professional phagocytes, but destruction of gonococci after entry into phagocytic vacuoles is not observed.…”

“…Recently, a similar invasion event has been noted in human nasopharyngeal organ cultures infected with N. meningitidis (53). Shaw et al (51,52) developed an assay to study gonococcal invasion by using HEC-1-B human endometrial cells; Bessen and Gotschlich (2) (4,43,69).…”

Studies on Gonococcal Infection

“…Watt reported that his strain even began to multiply when mixed with guinea pig peritoneal cells, though this multiplication seemed to be extracellular [12]. Waitkins and Flynn observed intracellular growth of N. gonorrhoeae in monkey kidney cells [11].…”

“…After gonococcal infection morphologically intact bacteria have been seen in leukocytes of infected subjects and tissue culture cells [9,11]. Thongthai and Sawyer demonstrated that gonococcal cells survived after 2-hr incubation with human or rabbit exudative leukocytes [10].…”

“…There have been several reports on the mode of infection of tissue culture cells [9,11] and leukocytes from patients [7]. However, it is still uncertain whether gonococcal cells can multiply in leukocytes as easily as other pathogenic bacteria and also whether it is possible to develop a vaccine against this disease.…”