Bacterial adherence to periurethral epithelial cells in girls prone to urinary-tract infections.
Bacterial adherence to epithelial cells from the periurethral region of 48 healthy girls aged over 2 years and of 76 girls with repeated urinary-tract infections was investigated. The infection-prone girls had a significantly higher mean number of adhering bacteria than the healthy controls ( P less than 0.01). This difference was valid irrespective of whether or not the infection-prone girls had urinary-tract infections at the time of investigation. Furthermore, statistically significantly higher numbers of a pyelonephritic strain of Escherichia coli (075:H-:K-non-typable) were found to adhere to washed periurethral cells from infection-prone girls than to cells from healthy controls. These characteristics of the periurethral epithelial cells may facilitate the primary periurethral colonisation which precedes infection of the urinary tract.
D000268:Adhesiveness; D000293:Adolescent; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004848:Epithelium / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000472:pathogenicity; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000209:etiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D014521:Urethra / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000209:etiology* / Q000382:microbiology