title: Failure of adherence to buccal cells and surface hydrophobicity as virulence markers in Neisseria meningitidis.
abstract: Surface hydrophobicity and adherence to buccal epithelial cells were studied in 33 carrier and 34 invasive Neisseria meningitidis strains. It was found that hydrophobicity is statistically similar in both groups (P = 0.0507) although it could be considered that carrier strains are slightly more hydrophobic than invasive ones. Adherence was similar in both groups although more homogeneous in the carrier strains. No correlation could be demonstrated between these two properties nor can they be considered relevant as markers of the carrier or invasive status of this bacterium, indicating that at least in N. meningitidis they are not good properties to discriminate virulent strains.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Microbiología y Parasitología, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad de Santiago, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Criado
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sáinz
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: del Río
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Ferreirós
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Criado
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carballo
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Souto
mesh_terms: D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D006801:Humans; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000382:microbiology*; D009345:Neisseria meningitidis / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014774:Virulence