STUDIES ON THE EXTRACELLULAR POLYSACCHARIDES PRODUCED BY ISOLATED DENTAL PLAQUE STREPTOCOCCI

Dental Plaque Streptococci가 생산하는 세포외 다당류에 관한 연구

For this investigation, author isolated Streptococcus mitis strain SD-9 from the bacterial flora in the human dental plaque, which was incubated in brain-heart infusion media containing 5% sucrose at 37℃ for 24 hours. For the cytochemical demonstration of polysaccharide produced by this strain, a modified thiosemicarbazide osmium method (Critchley et al., 1967) was used. After fixation with this reagent, the harvested cells was suspended in 1% agar for the higher concentration of cells(Kellenberger et al., 1964). And they were dehydrated in the various concentration of ethanol, and embedded in Epon 812(Luft, 1961). Sectioning was done with the Sorvall MT-2 Porter Blum ultramicrotome by means of a glass knife, and the sections were stained with saturated uranyl acetate and lead citrate (Raynolds, 1963). All preparations were examined in a electron microscope, Hitachi HU-ll E-1 type. The morphological features of extracellular polysaccharide produced by Streptococcus mitis strain SD-9 were appeared in 3 structurally different forms, those are, electron dense fibrillar material linearly arranged adjacent to the outer surface of cell wall, highly electron dense globular material adjacent to the outer surface of cell wall, and strutureless fluffy meshwork of possible very fine filament.