Open AccessThe Bactericidal Action of Human Serum on Bacteroides Species
Author(s) -
Vincent O. Rotimi,
Paul I. Eke
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of medical microbiology/journal of medical microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1473-5644
pISSN - 0022-2615
DOI - 10.1099/00222615-18-3-355
Subject(s) - bacteroides fragilis , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , bacteroidaceae , bacteria , bacteroides thetaiotaomicron , bacteroides , anaerobic bacteria , group b , medicine , antibiotics , genetics
Sera obtained from 60 healthy normal subjects were tested for their inhibitory action against four clinical isolates of the Bacteroides fragilis group. All the sera inhibited clinical strains of B. vulgatus and B. ovatus, 92% of 60 sera inhibited B. thetaiotaomicron and 62% inhibited B. fragilis. Bacterial inhibition required components of uninactivated serum and was related to the serum concentrations and species of the bacteria. The viable counts of all the strains, except B. fragilis, were significantly reduced in pooled sera from patients with anaerobic systemic infections and from non-infected patients. The bactericidal activity of the sera from infected patients was more pronounced than that of the 'normal' sera, on all strains except B. fragilis. These observations may explain in part the predominance of B. fragilis in serious clinical infections involving anaerobes.