title: Interactions of uroseptic Escherichia coli with renal (A-498) and gastrointestinal (HT-29) cell lines.
abstract: We investigated the ability of Escherichia coli isolated from septic patients with urinary tract infection (UTI) to translocate through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of the same patients using cell-culture models. Forty-seven hospitalized patients with urosepsis were included in this study. E. coli was isolated from their urine and blood (total 94 isolates) and investigated for genetic relatedness and interaction with the cell lines A-498 and HT-29. An initial comparison of the strains isolated from urine and blood showed that 44 out of 47 patients (94 %) had identical strains in their blood and urine. The blood isolates adhered to both cell lines, although their rate of adherence to A-498 cells was significantly higher than that to HT-29 cells (5.8±3.8 per cell vs 2.8±1.9; P<0.0001). The rate of translocation in A-498 cells was also significantly higher after 120 min (8.7×10(5) vs 2.9×10(5); P = 0.0006). Three non-identical blood isolates were unable to translocate in HT-29 cells, indicating that host immune factors might be more important than bacterial ability to translocate the GI epithelium in these patients. Our data showed that blood isolates from uroseptic patients are able to adhere to and translocate through both cell lines. This suggests that E. coli in patients with UTI may translocate from either the GI tract or the urinary tract, hence questioning the assumption that the urinary tract is the only source of septicaemia in these patients.
authors.affiliation: Inflammation and Healing Research Cluster, School of Health and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore DC, Australia.
authors.forename: Tara L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Vollmerhausen
authors.affiliation: Inflammation and Healing Research Cluster, School of Health and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore DC, Australia.
authors.forename: Jasmine L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Woods
authors.affiliation: Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Faoagali
authors.affiliation: Inflammation and Healing Research Cluster, School of Health and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore DC, Australia.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Katouli
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D018988:Bacterial Translocation; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D001769:Blood / Q000382:microbiology; D002460:Cell Line; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018805:Sepsis / Q000382:microbiology*; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000382:microbiology*; D014556:Urine / Q000382:microbiology; D056689:Uropathogenic Escherichia coli / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult