Enterotoxigenic intestinal bacteria in tropical sprue. IV. Effect of linoleic acid on growth interrelationships of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Klebsiella pneumoniae.

The factors responsible for colonization of the small intestine by enterotoxigenic coliform bacteria in Puerto Ricans with tropical sprue are unknown, but epidemiological observations have suggested that they may be related to an increased dietary intake of long-chain unsaturated fatty acids, particularly linoleic acid, which is known to exert an inhibitory effect on the growth of gram-positive organisms that normally comprise the flora of the small intestine. We have examined, by using a glucose-limited continuous-culture system, what effect this fatty acid exerts on the growth relationships of enteric gram-positive and coliform bacteria. In this system, colonization by an invading strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae was prevented by the presence of an established culture of Lactobacillus acidophilus, principally by virtue of a lowered pH of the medium that was incompatible with Klebsiella growth. However, when the population density of L. acidophilus was reduced by the presence of a sufficient concentration of linoleic acid, the invading K. pneumoniae successfully colonized the system and, once established, suppressed the growth of L. acidophilus. These observations indicate that, under the conditions of our chemostat, gram-positive enteric bacteria suppress coliform growth and that this effect is reversible by the presence of linoleic acid. It remains to be established, however, what pertinence these in vitro observations have to conditions within the intestinal tract of persons living in the tropics.