Diverse microbial interactions with the basement membrane barrier.
During primary contact with susceptible hosts, microorganisms face an array of barriers that thwart their invasion process. Passage through the basement membrane (BM), a 50-100-nm-thick crucial barrier underlying epithelia and endothelia, is a prerequisite for successful host invasion. Such passage allows pathogens to reach nerve endings or blood vessels in the stroma and to facilitate spread to internal organs. During evolution, several pathogens have developed different mechanisms to cross this dense matrix of sheet-like proteins. To breach the BM, some microorganisms have developed independent mechanisms, others hijack host cells that are able to transverse the BM (e.g. leukocytes and dendritic cells) and oncogenic microorganisms might even trigger metastatic processes in epithelial cells to penetrate the underlying BM.
Department of Virology, Parasitology and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium. lennert.steukers@ugent.be
Lennert
L
Steukers
Sarah
S
Glorieux
Annelies P
AP
Vandekerckhove
Herman W
HW
Favoreel
Hans J
HJ
Nauwynck
D000818:Animals; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D001485:Basement Membrane / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000821:virology*; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D005658:Fungi / Q000502:physiology*; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans; D018406:Virus Physiological Phenomena