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Abstract
The resistance to phagocytic uptake and intracellular killing of staphylococci grown in vivo and in vitro has been compared. Strains O (original) and P (rabbit passaged) grown in vitro and strain V (isolated directly from rabbits infected with strain P) did not differ in their susceptibility to ingestion by polymorphs. Intracellular killing was most marked in the 1st hr after phagocytosis; survival of strain V was substantially greater than that of strains O and P. This is in agreement with earlier observations on the resistance of these strains to the bactericidins of polymorph lysates. In contrast to behaviour in lysates, strain P was not significantly different from strain O in resistance to phagocytic killing. It is suggested that the virulence difference between strains P and O depends on the properties of the phenotypic form that each assumes in vivo.
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