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    Mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa colonizes and infects the respiratory tract of most older patients with cystic fibrosis. These bacteria resist both opsonin-dependent and -independent phagocytosis by human polymorphonuclear leukocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages. Resistance to phagocytosis is thought to be mediated in part by the mucoid exopolysaccharide associated with the bacterial surface. The purpose of this study was to determine whether degradation of the mucoid exopolysaccharide by alginase enhances bacterial susceptibility to nonopsonic phagocytosis by macrophages. Eight phagocytosis-resistant mucoid P. aeruginosa isolates from patients with cystic fibrosis were studied. The bacteria were treated with a preparation of alginase from Bacillus circulans, and phagocytosis by macrophages was measured by a visual inspection assay. Alginase degradation of mucoid exopolysaccharide was measured by the periodate-thiobarbituric acid assay and by indirect immunofluorescence with a mouse monoclonal antibody to the mucoid exopolysaccharide. Alginase degraded the mucoid exopolysaccharide of all eight mucoid strains tested. Phagocytosis was enhanced in five of the eight strains. Alginase-enhanced phagocytosis was magnesium dependent and heat labile. Alginase may be a useful tool for studying the biological properties of P. aeruginosa mucoid exopolysaccharide.
    Radioactively labelled bacteria were incubated overnight in the presence or absence of one-half the MIC of clindamycin, then preopsonized with normal human serum or homologous rabbit antiserum and incubated with human polymorphonuclear leucocytes. Clindamycin in subinhibitory concentrations significantly enhanced the phagocytosis of all four Bacteroides strains. Complement-dependent as well as antibody-dependent phagocytosis was enhanced by clindamycin in one Bacteroides strain. In the other three strains, only antibody dependent phagocytosis was enhanced by clindamycin. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed phagocytosis of the bacteroides.
    Citations (21)
    Abstract – In this study 17 strains of Porphyromonas gingivalis , both reference and clinical isolates, were investigated for their in vitro interaction with human polymorphonuclear leukocytes, hydrophobicity, density, and virulence in a mouse model. The results of the phagocytosis, hydrophobicity, and density experiments showed that P. gingivalis strains could be divided into two distinct groups. One group of strains were readily attached and phagocytosed when exposed to the leukocytes. These bacteria were hydrophobic and had a higher buoyant density than the other group, which were poorly phagocytosed, had a low buoyant density, and were hydrophilic. This latter group also exhibited an extracellular meshwork resembling a glycocalyx when examined by electron microscopy. There were also significant differences between strains in the mouse pathogenicity model. Two strains caused an invasive, spreading infection compared with the other 15 strains which produced small, localized abscesses. There was no clear correlation between the results of the phagocytosis assay and the virulence of the bacteria when injected subcutaneously in mice. Resistance to phagocytosis may be important for survival of these bacteria, but it does not in itself imply the ability to cause damage to the host.
    Virulence factor
    Abstract This study was initiated to determine whether purified slime polysacchar- ide(PSP) from P aeruginosa inhibits the ingestion of heat killed Saccharomyces cerevisiae particles in macrophage cultures. Relative to controls, direct phagocytosis assays revealed that the percentages of phagocytes and the numbers of ingested yeast particles per phagocyte decreased in a dose-dependent manner in PSP-treated cultures. Thus, PSP may act as a virulence factor in vivo by impairing the phagocytic capacity of macrophages.
    Phagocyte
    Virulence factor
    Citations (7)
    Peritoneal macrophages from normal guinea pigs were allowed to phagocytize Salmonella typhimurium in vitro. The extent of phagocytosis was determined by quantitative viable counts of the bacteria released after lysis of the phagocytes with sodium deoxycholate. It was shown that the avirulent strain RIA of salmonellae was more susceptible to ingestion by macrophages than the virulent strain SR-11. The presence of immune serum in the phagocytic mixture greatly enhanced the extent with which strain SR-11 was phagocytized. Also, the virulent bacteria recovered from infected mice exhibited a greater resistance to phagocytosis than those maintained in artificial media.
    Caviidae
    Strain (injury)
    Colonial varieties of Neisseria gonorrhoeae that are associated with virulence, types 1 and 2, were more resistant to phagocytosis by rabbit exudative polymorphonuclear leukocytes than colonial types of lesser virulence, types 3 and 4. Type 1 bacteria were resistant and type 4 gonococci were susceptible to phagocytosis by human polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Recent local type 1 isolates were similar in resistance to type 1 organisms of a standard laboratory strain (F62). Living and Formalin-treated, heat-killed, type 1 gonococci were equally resistant to phagocytosis. The antiphagocytic property of virulent colonial types was independent of leukotoxic action. Phagocytosis of both type 1 and type 4 gonococci by rabbit and human leukocytes was bactericidal. Rabbit leukocytes were superior to human leukocytes in killing gonococci. The results suggest that N. gonorrhoeae has virulence properties similar to those of extracellular bacterial pathogens, i.e., virulence is associated with antiphagocytic properties.
    Neisseria gonorrhoeae
    Neisseria
    Phagocytosis is a critical function of polymorphonuclear leukocytes in the control of mycotic infections. By using a modified fluorescence quenching assay to distinguish between attached and ingested organisms, we determined the percent phagocytosis of several medically important yeasts. The percentages of phagocytosis of serum-opsonized Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, Candida parapsilosis, and Torulopsis glabrata were all comparable at 37 degrees C. By comparison, there was significantly less phagocytosis of Cryptococcus neoformans and Trichosporon beigelii isolates (P < 0.001). Thus, phagocytosis of C. albicans by polymorphonuclear leukocytes is comparable to that of species other than C. albicans but is significantly greater than that of the basidiomycetous yeasts T. beigelii and C. neoformans.
    Candida parapsilosis
    Trichosporon