Favorable effects in vitro and in vivo of two clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa on nutritionally deficient Staphylococcus aureus strains.

Abstract

We have studied aspects of interbacterial ecology with nutritionally dependent Staphylococcus aureus strains; they were grown in association with Pseudomonas aeruginosa in systems of mixed cultures and infections in vitro in a semisynthetic medium and in vivo in mouse peritoneal cavity and rabbit skin. In mixed cultures and in P. aeruginosa culture filtrates, thymine and tryptophan deficiencies in staphylococci were partly overcome. This is probably because P. aeruginosa supplied the essential metabolites required to ensure growth; however, other metabolic activities could also be involved. Other experiments showed that the sensitivity of thymineless staphylococci to nucleoside inhibitions was alleviated. In mixed infections with P. aeruginosa, the S. aureus thymineless strain has shown a greater ability to survive in the peritoneal cavity of mice than when injected alone, even when one species was injected after the other with different doses of bacteria. The examination of the liquid from the peritoneal cavity of infected mice by fluorescence microscopy after fluorochroming with acridine orange or auramine O has revealed that Pseudomonas endotoxin seems to damage leucocytes and consequently reduces the phagocytosis of Staphylococcus cells.Necrosis in rabbit skin was mainly due to S. aureus when both species were injected together intradermally; the thymineless strain was less harmful than the parent strain.It seems that survival and even growth of nutritionally dependent strains of a bacterial species can be favored by the metabolic activities of another species in mixed cultures and infections, in this instance S. aureus by P. aeruginosa. This phenomenon among others could be a determinant of bacterial pathogenicity for nutritionally dependent pathogenic bacteria; thus associated organisms could determine the effective pathogenicity of nutritionally dependent bacteria by contributing essential nutrilites at the site where infection is initiated.