On bacteria decomposing cholesterol

Summary

It has been definitely proved that in suitable enrichment media in which cholesterol is the only source of carbon this compound disappears with relatively great speed. Continuous shaking of these cultures greatly favours their development. From the enrichment cultures threeMycobacterium species have been isolated which proved to be able to attack this compound also in pure culture. One of these species which possesses this property in a very marked degree does not seem to have been described earlier. For this species the name ofMycobacterium cholesterolicum has been proposed.

Strains ofMycobacterium phlei, M. lacticola, M. berolinense, M. salmonicolor and ofM. rubrum, taken from the laboratory collection, were also able to decompose cholesterol.