title: A new model for studying bacterial adherence to the respiratory epithelium.
abstract: The frog palate mucosa was used as a new model for studying bacterial adherence to the respiratory epithelium. The main advantage of this model is that the mucus blanket, normally present on airway mucosa, can be preserved during the assays. The adherence of radiolabeled pneumococci to mucus-coated mucosa was five times higher (P less than 0.001) than the adherence to mucus-depleted mucosa. In the latter case, bacteria were never seen attached to ciliated cells but could be detected on small remaining patches of mucus. These results demonstrate that respiratory mucus plays a major role in bacteria-mucosa interactions.
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Microbiologia e Immunologia, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Plotkowski
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Puchelle
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001001:Anura; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D009092:Mucous Membrane / Q000382:microbiology; D010159:Palate / Q000382:microbiology*; D012137:Respiratory System / Q000382:microbiology*; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects
chemical_list: D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes