Electron microscope observations on the effects of polymixin B sulfate on cell walls of Chlamydia psittaci.

The effects of polymixin B sulfate on cell walls of mature elementary body (EB) and of immature developmental reticulate body (RB) of Chlamydia psittaci were investigated. When purified EB were treated with polymixin (10(4) units per ml or more) at 37 C for 60 min, about 70% of EB was found to be covered with a number of projections. Further incubation did not increase the percentage affected. The infectivity after treatment as assayed by the inclusion counting technique was reduced by 70% of the original titer. These results suggest that EB with the projections are no longer infective. The projections had obscure outlines and were 20 to 40 nm in diameter when seen in thin sections. In the negatively stained preparations, the projections were composed of aggregations of fine particles 4 to 5 nm in diameter. Treatment with sodium dodecyl sulfate at the same concentration used for cell wall isolation removed the projections completely, and the cell walls were converted to rather ragged forms apparently composed of outside and inside layers. When RB cell walls prepared from infected cells at 18 hr after infection were treated with polymixin at the same concentration, the projections having the same morphology with those seen on treated EB cell walls were observed only on the inside surface of cell wall.