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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, February 2003, p. 614-619, Vol. 47, No. 2
0066-4804/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AAC.47.2.614-619.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Culture and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Bartonella quintana in Human Erythrocytes

Jean-Marc Rolain,1 Max Maurin,1 Marie-Noëlle Mallet,1 Daniel Parzy,2 and Didier Raoult1*

Unité des Rickettsies CNRS UMR-A 6020, IFR 48 Faculté de Médecine, Université de la Méditerranée, 13385 Marseille Cedex 05,1 Unité de Parasitologie, Institut de Médecine Tropicale du Service de Santé des Armées, Le Pharo, 13998 Marseille, France2

Received 6 December 2001/ Returned for modification 4 May 2002/ Accepted 5 November 2002

Bartonella quintana, the agent of trench fever, has recently been implicated in various diseases, in particular, bacteremia and endocarditis in homeless people. The host cell of Bartonella spp. is believed to be the erythrocyte, and in the present study we demonstrate that B. quintana can be cultured in vitro in human erythrocytes. The bacteria were found to be intraerythrocytic by laser confocal microscopy with Bartonella species-specific monoclonal antibodies. Infections with B. quintana decreased the life span of erythrocytes in culture from 8.6 to 4.8 days. In the culture system we found that most of the antibiotics that we tested (doxycycline, fluoroquinolone compounds, and beta-lactams) were not bactericidal. Gentamicin was bactericidal at 4 µg/ml, as was rifampin, but to a lesser extent. At this concentration, gentamicin has been shown to enter erythrocytes slowly and to reach a peak level of 0.26 µg/ml after 24 h. At 0.26 µg/ml, however, we found that gentamicin was not able to kill extracellular B. quintana, even after 96 h of incubation. We hypothesize that erythrocytes may be a reservoir for B. quintana and that the bactericidal activity of gentamicin that we observed occurs mainly when the bacteria emerge from the erythrocytes and are found extracellularly. It would appear that gentamicin should be administered for at least 5 days to cure patients infected with B. quintana.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Unité des Rickettsies, Faculté de Médecine, 27, Boulevard Jean Moulin, 13385 Marseille Cedex 5, France. Phone: 33.04.91.32.43.75. Fax: 33.04.91.38.77.72. E-mail: Didier.Raoult{at}medecine.univ-mrs.fr.

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, February 2003, p. 614-619, Vol. 47, No. 2
0066-4804/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AAC.47.2.614-619.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Biswas, S., Raoult, D., Rolain, J.-M. (2007). Molecular mechanisms of resistance to antibiotics in Bartonella bacilliformis. J Antimicrob Chemother 59: 1065-1070 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Dorbecker, C., Sander, A., Oberle, K., Schulin-Casonato, T. (2006). In vitro susceptibility of Bartonella species to 17 antimicrobial compounds: comparison of Etest and agar dilution. J Antimicrob Chemother 58: 784-788 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Schulte, B., Linke, D., Klumpp, S., Schaller, M., Riess, T., Autenrieth, I. B., Kempf, V. A. J. (2006). Bartonella quintana Variably Expressed Outer Membrane Proteins Mediate Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Secretion but Not Host Cell Adherence. Infect. Immun. 74: 5003-5013 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
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