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Staphylococcus aureus adherence to nasal epithelial cells in a physiological in vitro model

  • Infectious Disease/Cellular Pathology
  • Published:
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Summary

Nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus represents a risk factor for subsequent invasive infections and interpatient transmission of strains. No physiological in vitro model of nasal epithelial cells is available to study both patient- and bacteria-related characteristics and their interaction, leading to adherence and colonization. Starting with tissues from human nasal polyps, a confluent, squamous, nonkeratinized epithelium in collagen-coated 96-well microtiter plates was obtained after 14 d. This in vitro cell-layer was characterized histologically, ultrastructurally, and immunohistochemically and showed features that were indistinguishable from those observed in the squamous nonkeratinized epithelium found in the posterior part of the vestibulum nasi. Adherence experiments were performed with four different 3H-thymidine-labeled Staphylococcus aureus strains. The effect of bacterial inoculum size, temperature of incubation, and incubation medium were studied. The adherence results were found to be reproducible, reliable and sensitive, allowing detection of small quantitative differences in adherence between the Staphylococcus aureus strains. There was no significant difference in adherence at 23° C and 37° C, nor between the incubation medium M199 and phosphate-buffered saline. Plastic adherence could be reduced and standardized with use of siliconized tips and a constant bacterial inoculum volume of 100 µl/well. This physiological and reliable in vitro cell-culture model offers a unique opportunity to study Staphylococcus aureus adherence to squamous, nonkeratinized nasal epithelial cells and both patient and bacterial characteristics involved in this interaction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Internal Medicine and Paediatrics, Rega Institute for Medical Research, ENT Department and Centre for Human, Belgium

    M. Jorissen

  2. Department of Pathology, Laboratory of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry, K. U. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    R. De Vos

  3. Infectious Diseases Research Group, Minderbroedersstraat 10, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    A. Hoefnagels-Schuermans, W. E. Peetermans, S. Van Lierde, J. van den Oord & J. Van Eldere

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  1. A. Hoefnagels-Schuermans
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  2. W. E. Peetermans
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  3. M. Jorissen
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  4. S. Van Lierde
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  5. J. van den Oord
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  6. R. De Vos
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  7. J. Van Eldere
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Correspondence to A. Hoefnagels-Schuermans.

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Hoefnagels-Schuermans, A., Peetermans, W.E., Jorissen, M. et al. Staphylococcus aureus adherence to nasal epithelial cells in a physiological in vitro model. In Vitro Cell.Dev.Biol.-Animal 35, 472–480 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11626-999-0054-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11626-999-0054-0

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