Bacterial virulence and host selection: bacteria "select" patients to infect

A clinically lethal strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was tested and its growth patterns in normal plasma and in normal whole blood clotted with thrombin were compared. Two stock cultures were used; one was maintained in liquid nitrogen and one was passed from plate to plate 24 times on blood agar plates at room temperature. The results showed that plasma alone and whole blood controlled the growth of a clinically pathogenic strain of P. aeruginosa consistently and uniquely for each donor, dependent on size of inoculum, length of incubation, and means by which the culture was maintained. The changing virulence of an organism and its unique growth patterns in different individuals' plasma and whole blood may explain why patients exposed to the same organisms within the same environment vary in susceptibility to clinical infection.