New murine model of bronchopneumonia due to cell-bound Haemophilus influenzae

This murine model of nontypeable (unencapsulated) Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) bronchopneumonia used organisms bound to mouse fetal lung (MFL) cells as an inoculum. Pretreatment of the mice with 40 mu L of 1% formalin 3 days before intranasal instillation of the bacteria was necessary to allow infection. The number of NTHI recovered from the lungs plus trachea on day 7 after instillation was >100 times the number originally inoculated. Later, however, the number of recovered bacteria diminished gradually, and by day 14 it was almost identical to the original inoculum size. Serum IgM also peaked on day 7 after infection, after which IgG increased while IgM decreased. Histologically, bronchoalveolar infiltration of neutrophils was observed on day 3 after inoculation and continued at least for the following 4 days. The present experiment demonstrates that MFL cells can protect bacteria that have invaded the cells from the opsonizing and killing activities of host humoral defense mechanisms.