Energetics (Adenosine 5′-Triphosphate) of Mycobacterium lepraemurium in Diffusion Chambers Incubated In Vitro and in Mice

Abstract

Adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP) measurements and the processing of samples have been refined to a point where the energetics and growth potential of microscopic samples of unwashed host-grown, host-dependent microbes can be investigated. Mycobacterium lepraemurium , the noncultivated agent of murine leprosy, was employed to examine three reports of the slow microscopic growth of this organism in the absence of host cells. A few million bacterial cells were enclosed in Rightsel- and Ito-type diffusion chambers, which were incubated in vitro and in the peritoneal cavities of mice. In the in vitro experiments, a complex medium containing bovine serum and mouse brain extracts, renewed three times a week, did not sustain the energetics of the bacilli. The microscopic counts declined to 72% and the ATP per culture to 9% of the original values. Very different results were obtained from chambers incubated in the peritoneal cavities of mice. The bacterial biomass increased 2.7-fold and the ATP per culture increased 2.5-fold. Because the ATP per cell was 93% of the original, this system is regarded as the first to permit the extracellular growth of a so-called “obligate intracellular microbe.” The results obtained with only 1 × 10 6 host-grown cells per assay demonstrate a significant biochemical tool for investigating the growth potential of host-grown microbes during the progression, regression, and therapy of disease.