Bacterial growth in vivo. An important determinant of the pulmonary clearance of Diplococcus pneumoniae in rats.

Lung clearance of Diplococcus pneumoniae was markedly reduced in rats with acute hemorrhagic pulmonary edema produced by instillation of hydrochloric acid. Bacterial clearance was enhanced in both control and acid-instilled animals by pretreatment with a bacteriostatic antibiotic, tetracycline, 30 mg/kg. From these data the contributions of bacterial multiplication and bacterial elimination to net lung bacterial clearance were estimated. In control animals the constant for exponential bacterial elimination was -1.4283 (fractional clearance = 76% per h), and the doubling time for the pneumococcus was 170 min. In acid-instilled rats the elimination constant was -0.5336 (fractional clearance = 41% per h), and the doubling time of the pneumococcus was 47 min, approximating the doubling time of 42 min observed with pneumococci grown in broth. These results indicate that, in the case of pneumococci, both bacterial elimination and bacterial growth contribute to lung bacterial clearance in normal animals as well as animals with damaged lungs. In the present study changes in both parameters were required to explain the observed results in acid-instilled animals. The pulmonary pathogenicity of some bacterial species may be determined by their capacity for growth in the lung, since infection of the lung occurs when bacterial multiplication exceeds the rate of elimination of viable organisms.