Effect of Bile, Sodium Salts of Bile Acids, and Unsaturated Fatty Acids on Bacteriophagic Action.

Abstract

Previous investigators record different observations on the effect of bile on bacteriophagic action. Hauduroy,1 Jong and Hauduroy,2 and d'Herelle3 found that bile was decidedly inhibitory, whereas Caublot,4 in observations extending over a period of two years, obtained no evidence of an inhibitory action of bile on bacteriophage.In the studies, recorded here, of the action of bile on bacteriophage, B. coli, B. typhosus and B. dysenteriae Shiga and Mt. Desert strains were used with bacteriophages obtained from stool filtrates and from culture filtrates. In no case was there any inhibition of the bacteriophage in the presence of bile, although the bile was added to broth medium in concentrations of 10 per cent and 50 per cent. Filtered bile was tested as well as bile sterilized by heat, and a peptone medium was substituted for beef infusion broth, but the end result was always the same, the bile never inhibited the bacteriophage.Bachmann and Aquino5 report that, in their experiments, bile stimulated the pro...