Growth and development of T strain pleuropneumonia-like organisms in human epidermoid carcinoma cells (HeLa).

Previous investigations have demonstrated the existence of basophilic, intracytoplasmic inclusions in epithelial cells obtained from the anterior urethra of nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) patients (Johnston and McEwin, 1945; Harkness, 1945, 1950; Williams, 1946; Harkness and Henderson-Begg, 1948). Pleuropneumonialike organisms (PPLO) were frequently recovered in culture from these NGU patients in whom intracytoplasmic inclusions were demonstrated. This associative relationship was interpreted as suggesting that the inclusions may have been an intracellular phase of the pleuropneumonialike organisms isolated in culture from such patients. Highly characteristic, minute-colony T strains of pleuropneumonialike organisms have recently been described (Shepard, 1956) which were recovered in primary culture from approximately 70 per cent of patients with nongonococcal urethritis. Furthermore, a majority of the NGU patients from whom T strain PPLO were recovered in culture also showed characteristic, basophilic intracytoplasmic inclusions in epithelial cells obtained from the anterior urethra. These inclusions exhibited structures that were consistent in size, morphology, and staining reaction to those of the pleuropneumonia group as a whole, and were interpreted as the tissuephase of the T strain pleuropneumonialike organism (Shepard, 1957). The demonstration of characteristic, basophilic inclusions in the cytoplasm of experimentally infected epithelial type cells by purified, cultured T strain PPL organisms would provide additional evidence in support of this interpretation. The results of such a study comprise the subject of this report.