title: Quiescence and/or pathogenicity of the ascomycete micro-organism as one of three separate entities in a living animal or human host.
abstract: Experimental studies on I.C.R. mice with induced ascitic fluid suggest that the mold micro-organism of the ascomycete family when inoculated in a living host, with a lowered pH, may survive but only initially in a conidial phase as a distinct and separate entity. It may reside quiescently as a sexual conidium within a cell of the reticulo-endothial system or with provocation multiply as the asexual form. Because of their altered physiomorphological status these conidial bodies cannot be identified accurately either by a microscopic study on a cytobiological wet smear basis or by a stained slide, nor be readily recaptured by utilizing the conventional culture techniques. Revised culturing methods utilizing the elements carbon dioxide, sodium chloride, calcium and magnesium in Sabouraud's Agar slant aerobically may help recover the adult micro-organism for positive identification. Sometimes, however, under deteriorating or moribund status of the host the conidia may revert, in ascitic fluid, to the autonomous form spontaneously. The transformation-reformation potential of the ascomycete in vivo, the non-recognizable status of the conidial bodies, and the inability to recapture the adult autonomous form by conventional laboratory means, despite their known presence, suggests a possible relationship of this micro-organism to certain of the acute, chronic inflammatory diseases, pleomorphic tumors, granulomas, and the malignancies. These diseases despite signs of an acute or chronic inflammatory process usually give a "no growth" result. The conidial phase of the ascomycete may very well, I believe, be the malefactor in these conditions that hitherto have defied etiological explanation.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001201:Ascites / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D001202:Ascitic Fluid / Q000382:microbiology*; D001203:Ascomycota / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D051379:Mice