Ultrastructural study of the response of cells infected in vitro with causative agent of spotted fever group rickettsiosis in Japan.

The response of host cells L929 infected with causative agent of spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiosis in Japan, the Katayama strain, was studied by electron microscopy. The rickettsiae penetrated the cytoplasm and multiplied here and after prolonged incubation progressed into the dilated cisternae of rough endoplasmic reticulum (rER), the perinuclear space, the deep invaginated nuclear membrane, and then the nucleoplasm of the host cells. The intranuclear rickettsiae showed different states: one type was enclosed by the double membrane of the host cell and the other type was free in the nucleoplasm. In addition to these double membrane-bound and membrane-free intranuclear rickettsiae, various membrane structures, including rER-like structures, were also found in the nucleus. The cells infected with the rickettsiae underwent distinctive morphological alterations which occurred mainly within intracellular membranes of the host cells. These findings indicate the possibility that the intracellular membranes are characteristic cytopathological sites in rickettsia-host cell interaction, and that these alterations may be related to a possible route of rickettsial penetration into the nucleus: passage through vesicles formed from invaginations in the nuclear membrane.