title: Analysis of Endothelial Adherence of Bartonella henselae and Acinetobacter baumannii Using a Dynamic Human Ex Vivo Infection Model.
abstract: Bacterial adherence determines the virulence of many human-pathogenic bacteria. Experimental approaches elucidating this early infection event in greater detail have been performed using mainly methods of cellular microbiology. However, in vitro infections of cell monolayers reflect the in vivo situation only partially, and animal infection models are not available for many human-pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, ex vivo infection of human organs might represent an attractive method to overcome these limitations. We infected whole human umbilical cords ex vivo with Bartonella henselae or Acinetobacter baumannii under dynamic flow conditions mimicking the in vivo infection situation of human endothelium. For this purpose, methods for quantifying endothelium-adherent wild-type and trimeric autotransporter adhesin (TAA)-deficient bacteria were set up. Data revealed that (i) A. baumannii binds in a TAA-dependent manner to endothelial cells, (ii) this organ infection model led to highly reproducible adherence rates, and furthermore, (iii) this model allowed to dissect the biological function of TAAs in the natural course of human infections. These findings indicate that infection models using ex vivo human tissue samples ("organ microbiology") might be a valuable tool in analyzing bacterial pathogenicity with the capacity to replace animal infection models at least partially.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital, Goethe-University, Institute for Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weidensdorfer
authors.affiliation: University Hospital, Goethe-University, Institute for Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Ju Ik
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Chae
authors.affiliation: University Hospital, Goethe-University, Institute for Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Celestine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Makobe
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Bioenergetics, Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stahl
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Bioenergetics, Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Beate
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Averhoff
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Bioenergetics, Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: University Hospital, Goethe-University, Institute for Cardiovascular Physiology, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schürmann
authors.affiliation: University Hospital, Goethe-University, Institute for Cardiovascular Physiology, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Ralf P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Brandes
authors.affiliation: Robert Koch-Institute, Wernigerode Branch, Wernigerode, Germany.
authors.forename: Gottfried
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wilharm
authors.affiliation: University Hospital, Goethe-University, Institute for Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Wibke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ballhorn
authors.affiliation: University Hospital, Goethe-University, Institute for Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Christ
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, Section for Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Linke
authors.affiliation: University Hospital, Goethe-University, Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: University Hospital, Goethe-University, Institute for Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Göttig
authors.affiliation: University Hospital, Goethe-University, Institute for Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, Frankfurt am Main, Germany volkhard.kempf@kgu.de.
authors.forename: Volkhard A J
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Kempf
mesh_terms: D000151:Acinetobacter Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D040981:Acinetobacter baumannii / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D016917:Angiomatosis, Bacillary / Q000382:microbiology*; D000818:Animals; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D018416:Bartonella henselae / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D014470:Umbilical Cord / Q000382:microbiology*