A modern scientific perspective on Prof. Dr. Enderlein's concept of microbial life cycles

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, May, 2003 by Ronald Ullmann

Summary

In 1925, German zoologist Prof. Dr. Gunther Enderlein published his concepts of microbial life cycles based on blood analysis observations in the book The Life Cycle of Bacteria (Bakterien Cykiogenie). (1) He theorized that the origin of every microbe was a tiny protein of plant origin that Enderlein called protits or colloids. Furthermore, he thought that specific stimuli caused this protein to polymerize from ball-like structures - which he labelled symprotits and macrosymprotits - into spermites, which Enderlein believed was a virus or prestage of bacteria. From this spermite (viral phase), Enderlein reported that further development to a bacterium could take place, with final culmination into the fungi Aspergillus niger or Mucor racemosus.

This paper will report on the molecular identification of so-caled protits, symprotits and macrosymprotits, the initial stages of Enderlein's proposed life cycle of bacteria. Modern research conducted by Dr. Christopher Gerner, PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Vienna, Austria, has shown that these forms are primarily composed of the human body's own molecules, globin and albumin, and do not consist of plantbased proteins as thought by Enderlein. In addition, Enderlein did indeed observe some microscopic phenomena that seem to correlate to illness processes in human blood. However, his model of a life cycle of bacteria with a protein of plant origin (protit) as the starting point is no longer viable in light of the presented results. Today's scientific knowledge of living processes are very precise, but were unknown to Enderlein in 1925. Taking into account the limited knowledge and scientific techniques available to Enderlein decades ago, we can better understand how he came to his erroneous theories.

The Life of Prof. Dr. Enderlein

Professor Dr. Gunther Enderlein was born in 1872 in Leipzig, located in eastern Germany. He studied natural science, physics and zoology at the University of Liepzig and graduated summa cum laude. Following graduation, Enderlein served as an assistant at the Agricultural University in Berlin. He married in 1904 and two years later accepted a new position at the Zoological Museum in Stettin. In 1914, the First World War began and Enderlein served as a doctor in a German Military Hospital in Stettin. From 19 16-1922, he conducted research on his theory of bacterial life cycles, and published his findings in a book entitled Bakterien Cyklogenie (The Life Cycle of Bacteria) in 1925. During that period, he also was the director at the Zoological Institute and curator at the Berlin Zoological Museum.

In 1944, Dr. Enderlein founded the microbiological firm IBICA in Berlin. In 1949, he moved the company's headquarters and production facilities to Aumuehle, near Hamburg. In 1968, Enderlein died at the age of 96, and in 1975 the equipment of the IBICA Company was sold. (2)

Beckground to Enderlein's Observation in Blood Samples

In 1916, Dr. Enderlein began his investigations of blood under the microscope. He used techniques available at that time, namely phase contrast and darkfield microscopy. (3) These methods enabled him to observe both stained, dried blood and live blood preparations from healthy and sick animals and humans. (4,5) During his investigations, Enderlein observed many morphologies in the blood that he correlated to illnesses. (6) Enderlein reported seeing ball-like morphologies that he called protits, symprotits and macrosymprotits, depending on their size increase. (7) Moreover, he observed stringlike structures that he called filits, and string-like structures with a ball-like morphology on one end that he named spermites. (8,9)

Ball-like morphologies significantly larger in size than symprotits and macrosymprotits were called mychit or thecit, (10) while Enderlein named morphologies of many large, ball-like structures assembled in a row basit, phytit, rhabdit, linit and ascit, depending on the number arrayed. (11) Finally, the German researcher identified highly complex morphological structures as systases or petoharphen. (12)

Enderlein observed these morphologies in the blood of patients suffering from various illnesses, and was able to correlate different morphologies to the progress of illnesses. (13) As a result, he concluded that specific pathogenic structures developed in size and appearance depending on the progress of a particular illness (Endobiosis). (14) Enderlein was able to make these structures microscopically invisible by adding alkaline solution to the blood preparation, an effect he could not observe by adding an acidic solution. (15) This made him believe that he was observing a depolymerization reaction that resembles the reversing of the postulated upward development. (16) Because the structures he identified were affected by an alkaline solution and not by an acidic solution, Enderlein concluded that a constant intoxification and high acidic load in the blood leads to ongoing physiological disturbances that manifest in the structures observed in blood preparations.