Occurrence of Suppurative Gastritis in BALB/c mice Infected with Listeria monocytogenes via the Intragastric Route

Listeria monocytogenes is a facultative bacterium that cause severe clinical disease including meningoencephalitis, septicaemia, and abortion in pregnant women, newborn infants, the debilitated elderly or immunocompromised people. In preliminary experiments on murine listeriosis we noticed suppurative gastritis in mice infected with L. monocytogenes by the intragastric route. The aims of the present study were ⅰ) to describe the histopathology of the experimentally listeria-induced gastroenteritis ⅱ) to investigate the influence of bacterial strain and laboratory mouse strain on infectivity and on the severity of the infection; [3] to examine possible effects of preliminary intragastric administration of sodium bicarbonate. (omitted)