An Experimental Enterococcal Pyelonephritis in Mice

Abstract

IN the course of studying the animal pathogenicity of various bacterial species obtained from human infections, we noted that certain strains of enterococci localized and persisted in the kidneys of mice subsequent to intravenous challenge. Moreover, this enterococcal pyelonephritis could be induced with regularity in mice simply by intravenous injection, and did not require kidney traumatization as described by Braude et al. ¹ for the initiation of enterococcal kidney disease in rats. Since enterococci, particularly Streptococcus faecalis, are frequently associated with urinary tract infections in man^2,3 we felt that it would be pertinent to conduct further experiments on the murine disease. This communication presents our initial observations on certain bacteriological aspects of experimental enterococcal pyelonephritis. Additional results, including the histopathological characteristics of this mouse infection, will be reported elsewhere.