Accumulation of Bacteriophage in Spleen and Liver Following Its Intravenous Inoculation

Summary

It has been demonstrated that bacteriophage injected intravenously into rats accumulates in the spleen and liver. These organs accumulate phage to the same general degree as they do bacteria.

The rôle of the reticulo-endothelial system in removing microorganisms from the blood stream has been generally recognized in recent years. The earlier work of Bull 1 in this field has been supported and extended by others, particularly Cannon 2 ,³ and his coworkers. The question arose as to whether or not a readily filterable biological principle such as bacteriophage, which is probably particulate and of the general order of magnitude of the filterable viruses, would be removed from the blood stream by organs of the reticulo-endothelial system to a greater degree than by organs with few fixed phagocytic cells.

Y. Shitate 4 reported on the fate of bacteriophage in the body. Since he made no attempt to obtain quantitative results, his findings do not aid in answering the above question. Smirnow and Goldin 5 made a similar investigation on the fate of phage in the guinea pig's body after inoculation into the blood stream. Unfortunately they selected a 24-hour period for their first examination of the organs. Phage was found in low concentrations in blood, liver, spleen and kidneys. Sullivan, Neckermann and Cannon 3 have recently pointed out that although bacteria are present in much greater numbers in the spleen than in the blood 1 hour after an intravenous inoculation, that organ may be sterile in 24 hours. This may explain why Smirnow and Goldin failed to find any significant difference in bacteriophage titer between the blood and the reticulo-endothelial organs after so long a period as 24 hours.

Method. 15 albino rats (150–200 gm.) were etherized and injected in the exposed femoral vein with 2 cc. of staphylococcus phage. (1 cc. was injected in rats 11, 12 and 13.) In the case of rats 12–15 0.5 cc. of blood was collected from the clipped tail within 5 minutes. Two hours later the animals were again anesthetized and 0.5 to 1.0 gm. of various tissues were removed, ground with sand and 5 cc. of saline in a test tube.