The fate of gonococci in polymorphonuclear leucocytes: an electron microscopic study of the natural disease

Abstract

The fate of gonococci in polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMN) from men with acute gonorrhoea was studied using the electronmicroscope to look for ultrastructural damage in the bacteria. Our observations demonstrate that PMN degranulate normally into vacuoles containing gonococci and that obviously degenerate forms were present in older vacuoles. Morphologically intact gonococci were common in vacuoles containing evidence of recent degranulation suggesting that these organisms had only recently been phagocytosed. When urethral pus was suspended in tissue culture medium containing 1 μg/ml penicillin there were no “persisters” presumably because the intracellular organisms were killed by the PMN. Timed in vitro experiments using a proven virulent gonococcus demonstrated that gonococci degenerate within 30 to 60 min after phagocytosis.