You are here:
Importance of Flagella and Enterotoxins for Aeromonas Virulence in a Mouse Model
Citation:
SEN, K. AND D. J. LYE. Importance of Flagella and Enterotoxins for Aeromonas Virulence in a Mouse Model. CANADIAN JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGY. NRC Research Press, Ottawa, Canada, 53(2):261-269, (2007).
Impact/Purpose:
1. Identify animal based procedures that will be useful to better characterize infectivity in virulent strains of Helicobacter pylori. 2. Determine if short-term studies such as repeated intraperitoneal exposures or multiple gavage exposures can be used to determine the capacity of strains to colonize tissues. 3. Evaluate animal strains of Helicobacteras possible substitutes for H. pylori virulence capability in infectivity experiments and also as possible zoonotic sources of human infection.
Description:
A genetic characterization of eight virulence factor genes, elastase, lipase, polar flagella (flaA/flaB, flaG), lateral flagella (lafA), and the enterotoxins alt, act, and ast, was performed using polymerase chain reaction with 55 drinking water and nine clinical isolates. When 16 Aeromonas hydrophila strains, seven Aeromonas veronii strains, and seven Aeromonas caviae strains exhibiting different combinations of virulence factor genes were tested in immunocompromised mice by intraperitoneal injection, only those strains that had one or more of the enterotoxins flaA, flaB, and either flaG or lafA showed signs of being virulent. The correlation was seen in 97% (29/30) of the strains, which included strains from drinking water. Thus, Aeromonas water isolates have the potential to be pathogenic in immunocompromised hosts.
