PILl: THEIR ROLE IN ATTACHMENT OF GONOCOCCI TO TISSUE CULTURE CELLS* BY JOHN SWANSON

Recent studies on Neisseria gonorrhoeae have yielded suggestions that the surfaces of these organisms play vital roles as pathogenetic determiners in gonococcal infections. Virulence has been correlated with specific gonococcal colony forms by Kellogg et al. (1, 2). This finding was established through inoculation of human volunteers with organisms derived from the various colony types that could be morphologically differentiated. Colony types 1 and 2 produced typical acute venereal infection, whereas colony types 3 and 4 produced only mild, transient symptoms without establishment of infection in the genital tract. This colony type-virulence correlation was extended by the studies of Swanson et al. (3) and of Jephcott et al. (4) who demonstrated pill on the gonococci of types 1 and 2 and the absence of pill or organisms from types 3 and 4 colonies. These studies suggest a correlation between virulmce and the presence of pill on gonococci.