STUDIES ON SUSCEPTIBILITY TO INFECTION FOLLOWING IONIZING RADIATION

Abstract

In half of the normal mice examined, cultures of mesenteric lymph nodes were positive for enteric bacteria. When a non-pathogenic microorganism, Serratia marcescens, was established in the intestinal tract by administering it to mice in their drinking water, it, too, was recovered from the mesenteric lymph nodes of almost half of the normal mice examined. From these findings it was concluded that bacteria in small numbers were able to pass from the lumen of the unirradiated gut as far as the regional lymph glands. Such bacteria, except the pathogen, Salmonella, were rarely found in liver or spleen, never in the blood of the normal mice.