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- Title
P-fimbriae trigger mucosal responses to Escherichia coli in the human urinary tract.
- Authors
Wullt, Bjorn; Bergsten, Goran; Connell, Hugh; Rollano, Piotr; Gebratsedik, Negash; Long Hang; Svanborg, Catharina
- Abstract
Uropathogenic Escherichia coli elicit a host response that determines the severity of urinary tract infection (UTI). Specific adherence mechanisms allow the bacteria to initiate this process by targeting epithelial cells in the urinary tract mucosa. Epidemiological studies show a strong association of P-fimbriae with disease severity, suggesting that adherence mediated by these organelles has a direct effect on mucosal inflammation in vivo. The present study examined the ability of P-fimbriae to induce inflammation in the human urinary tract. Patients were subjected to intravesical inoculation with a non-fimbriated E. coli strain or transformants of this strain expressing Pfimbriae. The inflammatory response was analysed as a function of P-fimbrial expression. The P-fimbriated transformants invariably caused higher interleukin (IL)-8, IL-6 and neutrophil responses in the urinary tract than the ABU strain. Furthermore, loss of Pfimbrial expression in viva was accompanied by a return to background levels of neutrophils, IL-6 and IL-8 in individual patients. The results demonstrate that the pap sequences confer on a non-fimbriated, avirulent strain the ability to induce a host response in the human urinary tract. P-fimbriae thus fulfil the 'molecular Koch-Henle postulates' linking a single virulence factor to host response induction.
- Subjects
PILI (Microbiology); ESCHERICHIA coli; URINARY tract infections; IMMUNE response; BACTERIAL adhesion; IMMUNOLOGY
- Publication
Cellular Microbiology, 2001, Vol 3, Issue 4, p255
- ISSN
1462-5814
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1046/j.1462-5822.2001.00111.x