Two conflicting Viewpoints
From The Bacteriophages.org
1-The distribution of phage pfu's in mice following various routes of administration
2-Graphic representation of data from the 1943 infectious disease model in which mice were inoculated by intracerebral injection of the bacteria Shigella dysenteriae (at an LD50 level) were compared with uninfected control mice.Graph
All of the mice in this experiment were injected with 10^9 pfu of phage i.p. which was administered at the same time as the bacterial inoculation. The bacteriophage level in the blood of the uninfected animals was compatible with the dilution of the phage concentration in the total fluid volume of the mouse and the lower levels in the brain reflect the relatively smaller blood content in the brain. However, in the infected animals the phage particles are observed to increase at the site of the infection, the brain, while the blood levels of phage appear to be a 'reflection of the events occurring in the brain.
Graphical representation of data presented by Smith and Huggins. (In this set of experiments all of the animals received an intracerebral inoculation of 5X10^2 cfu of an E. coli K1).
The animals treated with phage were injected with 3X10^8 pfu of phage intramuscularly (into the gastrocnemius muscle) at the same time as the bacterial inoculation. These graphs were derived from the data published in tables 9 and 10 in their paper.
Smith, H. W., and M. B. Huggins. 1982. Successful treatment of experimental E.
coli infections in mice using phage: its general superiority over antibiotics. J. Gen.
Microbiol.128:307-318.
