Intracellular Acid-Fast Organisms Isolated from Malignant Tissues

Abstract

Pleomorphic, variably acid-fast organisms have been isolated by several investigators (l'tsperance, 1931; Mazet, 1941; Wuerthele-Caspe et al., 1948, 1949, 1950; Diller 1962a) from various mammalian neoplasms and from blood of tumor-bearing hosts. Serological studies of our cultures indicated cross-reactivity with the human tubercle bacillus, with BCG, and with several atypical acidfast strains from human sources (Diller, 1962a). When tumor tissues or blood of the hosts were inoculated into appropriate media, acid-fast intracellular forms were demonstrable by Ziehl-Neelsen or other acid-fast techniques in cells of the original inoculum after three to four weeks' incubation (Diller, 1952). The organisms isolated in this laboratory were pathogenic to mice under experimental conditions (Diller, 1962). Intracellular forms of the organisms frequently appeared in the tissues of the infected hosts (Diller, 1962b) but details of intracellular parasitism have not heretofore been presented.