Ability of intestinal Escherichia coli to survive within mesenteric lymph nodes.

Identification of mesenteric lymph node (MLN) bacteria showed that indigenous streptomycin-sensitive Escherichia coli could be recovered from MLN at least 48 h after this organism had been essentially eliminated from the cecal flora by antibiotics and replaced with exogenous streptomycin-sensitive E. coli JK. Additional experiments with antibiotic-treated rats also showed that indigenous streptomycin-sensitive E. coli could be recovered from the MLN 4 days after elimination of this organism from the cecal flora. These findings suggest that the time of bacterial translocation to MLN may be kinetically different from the time of recovery of bacteria from MLN and that the MLN may be a focus of infection with intestinal bacteria.