A Synthetic Substitute for Ascitic Fluid in a Medium for Cultivation of Gonococcus.

Abstract

Ever since its first cultivation by Bumm in 1885, the gonococcus has maintained a reputation for fastidiousness as regards its growth requirements. In consequence, a great number of media have been devised for it, the most successful and reliable of which are those containing human ascitic or hydrocele fluid. It is generally believed that the efficacy of these transudates depends, in large part at least, upon constituents other than their inorganic salts. To determine whether the rôle played by transudates in supporting the growth of gonococci may be attributed to substances other than the biologically important inorganic ions, a study of the function of the individual ions has been undertaken. Although this study is still in progress and will be published in detail later, we wish now to report that it is possible to cultivate the gonococcus on an agar medium containing only beef infusion and dextrose, providing it is made up in an aqueous solution of inorganic salts in kind and concentrations corresponding to those found in an ultrafiltrate of mammalian blood plasma. The solution, which for the sake of brevity we have called van Dyke-Hastings solution, is similar to that used by van Dyke and Hastings in their experiments on the response of guinea pig uterus to pituitary extract and is approximately isohydric, isosmotic, isionic with protein-free transudates. Its composition is given in Table I: Such a solution is simply prepared by mixing appropriate quantities of isotonic solutions of the individual salts. The composition of the stock solutions to be mixed is given in the second column of figures and the amounts used in preparing the van Dyke-Hastings solution are given in the last column of Table II.