C.T.: Effect of dietary nucleotides on response to bacterial infections

ABSTRACT. A nucleotide-free diet (NFD) suppresses cellular immunity including suppression of both murine allograft rejec-tion and murine graft- vs-host disease in H2 mismatched marrow recipients. To explore the effect of this diet upon response to a bacterial challenge, BALB/c mice were placed upon one of four diets: NFD, NFD supplemented with 0.25 % RNA (NFR) and NFD reconstituted with either 0.06 % adenine (NFA) or 0.06% uracil (NFU). After 8 weeks on the diets, which supported normal growth in all groups, each dietary group of 10 mice was challenged with an intravenous injection of 1 X 107 live Staph-ylococcus aureus (Strain ATCC 25923). By 120 hr postinocula-tion all mice in the NFD group had died; mortality was only 56 % in the NFR group (p < 0.05). Addition of uracil resulted in mortality similar to that of the NFR group. Addition of adenine resulted in mortality close to that of the NFD group