Abstract
Diarrhea causes substantial morbidity and mortality in children in low-income countries. Although numerous pathogens cause diarrhea, the etiology of many episodes remains unknown. Serratia marcescens is incriminated in hospital-associated infections, and HIV/AIDS associated diarrhea. We have recently found that Serratia spp. may be found more commonly in the stools of patients with diarrhea than in asymptomatic control children. We therefore investigated the possible enteric pathogenicity of S. marcescens in vitro employing a polarized human colonic epithelial cell (T84) monolayer. Infected monolayers were assayed for bacterial invasion, transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER), cytotoxicity, interleukin-8 (IL-8) release and morphological changes by scanning electron microscopy. We observed significantly greater epithelial cell invasion by S. marcescens compared to Escherichia coli strain HS (p D 0.0038 respectively). Cell invasion was accompanied by reduction in TEER and secretion of IL-8. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) extracellular concentration rapidly increased within a few hours of exposure of the monolayer to S. marcescens. Scanning electron microscopy of S. marcescens-infected monolayers demonstrated destruction of microvilli and vacuolization. Our results suggest that S. marcescens interacts with intestinal epithelial cells in culture and induces dramatic alterations similar to those produced by known enteric pathogens.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 729-736 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Gut Microbes |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 26 2015 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Adhesion
- Chemokine
- Cytotoxicity
- Invasion
- Pathogenicity
- Polarized monolayer
- Serratia marcescens
- T84 cells
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Gastroenterology
- Infectious Diseases
- Microbiology (medical)
- Microbiology
- Medicine(all)