Affiliation:
1. Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Enterococcus faecalis
is a gram-positive bacterium that can cause a variety of nosocomial infections of which urinary tract infections are the most common. These infections can be exceptionally difficult to treat because of drug resistance of many
E. faecalis
isolates. Despite their troublesome nature, little is known about the host or bacterial factors necessary for
E. faecalis
to cause disease in the urinary tract. Using a mouse model of urinary tract infection, we have shown that
E. faecalis
is capable of persisting in the kidneys of mice for at least 2 weeks. In contrast, bacterial titers from the bladders of the same mice were inconsistent and tended to be much lower than those recovered from the kidney. This preference for the kidney over the bladder is also observed in other clinical
E. faecalis
strains. Histologic examination of bladder and kidney tissues demonstrated that
E. faecalis
induced an inflammatory response in the kidney but not in the bladder. This inflammatory response was TLR2 independent and did not induce inflammatory markers typically associated with uropathogenic
Escherichia coli
. Using a competition assay, we demonstrated that a pyelonephritis clinical isolate had a growth advantage over a laboratory strain of
E. faecalis
in the kidneys but not in the bladders of mice. Taken together, these results demonstrate that
E. faecalis
has tropism for the kidneys in the urinary tracts of mice and that this system can be used to study factors involved in the pathogenesis of urinary tract infections.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Infectious Diseases,Immunology,Microbiology,Parasitology
Cited by
114 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献