Electron microscopy of Cowdria-infected macrophages suggests that in the absence of binary fission a mosaic of organisms develops from an amorphous electron dense matrix

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Du Plessis, J.L.

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Published by the Agricultural Research Council, Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute

Abstract

Electron microscopy of mouse peritoneal macrophages infected with the Kümm stock of Cowdria ruminantium suggests that in the final stage of intracellular growth, a mosaic of organisms develops from an amorphous matrix of varying electron density by a process in which double unit membranes portion off the Cowdria particles. This stage is preceded by inclusions consisting of a network of aggregated electron dense granules and these in turn by homogeneous dense bodies. The study failed to show how these dense bodies develop from internalized Cowdria particles introduced in the infective inoculum. The replication of the heartwater agent in macrophages differs from that in vascular endothelial cells in two important respects. First, at no stage during the course of development in macrophages is binary fission in evidence and second, in the absence of a limiting membrane the inclusions and colonies of organisms throughout the cycle of development in macrophages are in intimate contact with the host cell cytoplasm.

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The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. Adobe Acrobat v.9 was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.

Keywords

Veterinary medicine, Amorphous electron dense bodies, Binary fission, Cowdria-infected macrophages

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Citation

Du Plessis, JL 1999, 'Electron microscopy of Cowdria-infected macrophages suggests that in the absence of binary fission a mosaic of organisms develops from an amorphous electron dense matrix’. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, vol. 66, no. 1, pp. 39-46.