PapG-dependent adherence breaks mucosal inertia and triggers the innate host response
Author
Summary, in English
Mucosal pathogens differ from normal flora constituents in that they provoke a host response that upsets mucosal integrity. We investigated whether the elaboration of discrete adherence factors is sufficient to break the inertia of the mucosal barrier. PapG-mediated adherence was selected as an example, because P fimbrial expression characterizes uropathogenic Escherichia coli and because adherence starts the attack on the mucosal barrier. Patients were inoculated intravesically with transformed nonvirulent E. coli strains expressing functional P fimbriae (E. coli pap(+)) or mutant fimbriae lacking the adhesin (E. coli DeltapapG). E. coli pap(+) was shown to activate the innate host response, and adherent gfp(+) bacteria were observed on excreted uroepithelial cells. E. coli DeltapapG failed to trigger a response and was nonadhesive. We conclude that PapG-mediated adherence breaks mucosal inertia in the human urinary tract by triggering innate immunity and propose that this activation step differentiates asymptomatic carriage from infection.
Department/s
Publishing year
2004
Language
English
Pages
1734-1742
Publication/Series
Journal of Infectious Diseases
Volume
189
Issue
9
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Topic
- Infectious Medicine
Status
Published
Research group
- Clinical Microbiology, Malmö
- Urology
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1537-6613