title: Investigations on the role of flagella in the colonization of infant mice with Campylobacter jejuni and attachment of Campylobacter jejuni to human epithelial cell lines.
abstract: The biochemical and biological properties of the flagella of Campylobacter jejuni have been investigated using two variants selected from a flagellate, motile clinical isolate (strain 81116): a flagellate, non-motile variant (SF-1) and an aflagellate variant (SF-2). Phenotypic and biochemical analysis of the strains and amino acid analysis of the isolated flagella suggest that the variants differed from the wild-type strain only in the absence of flagella and/or motility. The aflagellate variant poorly colonized the gastrointestinal tract of infant mice but the flagellate, non-motile variant colonized the mice as successfully as the wild-type strain. 35S-labelled organisms were used to investigate the attachment of the variants to human epithelial cell monolayers in vitro. The flagellate, non-motile strain attached more efficiently to the cells than the wild-type strain or the aflagellate strain. Differences in attachment suggest that an adhesin is intimately associated with flagella of C. jejuni and that active flagella mediate only a tenuous association with host cells. This adhesin attached most efficiently to cells of intestinal epithelial origin and was not specifically inhibited by various sugars.
mesh_terms: D000268:Adhesiveness; D000818:Animals; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D002168:Campylobacter fetus / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002460:Cell Line; D004848:Epithelium / Q000382:microbiology; D005407:Flagella / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000382:microbiology; D051379:Mice; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009068:Movement
chemical_list: D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins