Cultivation of the Bacillus of Whipple's Disease

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 342; no. 9; pp. 620 - 625
• Main Authors: Raoult, Didier, Birg, Marie L, Scola, Bernard La, Fournier, Pierre E, Enea, Maryse, Lepidi, Hubert, Roux, Veronique, Piette, Jean-Charles, Vandenesch, François, Vital-Durand, Denis, Marrie, Tom J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, MA Massachusetts Medical Society 02.03.2000
• Subjects: Actinobacteria - genetics; Actinobacteria - growth & development; Actinobacteria - immunology; Actinobacteria - isolation & purification; Adult; Animals; Antibodies, Bacterial - blood; Bacteria; Bacterial diseases; Bacterial diseases of the digestive system and abdomen; Bacterial infections; Bacteriological Techniques; Biological and medical sciences; Cardiology; Cell culture; Cell Line; Endocarditis, Bacterial - microbiology; Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Direct; Human bacterial diseases; Humans; Immunoglobulin G - blood; Immunoglobulin M - blood; Infectious diseases; Male; Medical sciences; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Microscopy; Mitral Valve - microbiology; Tropheryma whippelii; Ultrasonic imaging; Whipple Disease - diagnosis; Whipple Disease - immunology; Whipple Disease - microbiology; Human; Exploration; Infection; Case study; Microbiological investigation; Intestinal malabsorption; Pathogen strain; Bacteriosis; Digestive diseases; Intestinal disease; Isolation; Whipple disease; Culture
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJM200003023420903

Whipple's disease is a systemic bacterial infection characterized by fever, weight loss, diarrhea, lymphadenopathy, and polyarthritis and, occasionally, by cardiac manifestations such as myocarditis, pericarditis, and endocarditis 1 , 2 or by central nervous system involvement. 3 George Whipple described the disease in 1907, 4 and its bacterial origins were confirmed by electron microscopy in 1961. 5 The diagnosis is usually established on microscopy by the identification in a duodenal-biopsy specimen of infiltration by large macrophages with bacteria positive for the periodic acid–Schiff (PAS) stain. 6 In 1991 Wilson et al. 7 used broad-range primers to amplify and sequence a portion of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene . . .