Cellular Response of the Rabbit Eye to Primary Intravitreal Injection of Neisseria meningitidis

The meningococcus and mechanisms of pathogenicity

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Experimental endogenous endophthalmitis caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b

Experimental endogenous endophthalmitis was produced in infant rats by either intranasal or intraperitoneal inoculation with Haemophilus influenzae type b and 5 days of age. The ocular disease occurred in about 50% of bacteremic animals who survived to age 12 days and probably represents metastatic bacterial infection secondary to hematogenous seeding. The lesion was a highly destructive suppurative endophthalmitis that ultimately progressed to panophthalmitis and was followed by organization of the exudate and phthisis bulbi.

Nonspecific resistance to intraocular infection. I. Elicitation of resistance by Neisseria meningitidis

Both eyes of rabbits whose right eyes had previously been injected with Neisseria meningitidis were injected with Diplococcus pneumoniae. The pneumococci failed to grow in the right eye of most rabbits challenged 2 and 4 days after the injection of the meningococci, but grew well in all left eyes. The "protective" effect was less pronounced in the rabbits challenged on days 6 and 9 and virtually absent when the interval between the two injections was 14 or 22 days. Pneumococci grew equally well in both eyes of rabbits that had received nitrogen mustard treatment prior to the intravitreal injection of meningococci, indicating a possible role for the polymorphonuclear leukocyte in the protective effect.