EnterohemorrhagicEscherichia coli O157:H7 Requires Intimin To Colonize the Gnotobiotic Pig Intestine and To Adhere to HEp-2 Cells

Authors

Marian L. McKee, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Angela R. Melton-Celsa, Uniformed Services University of the Health SciencesFollow
Rodney A. Moxley, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
David H. Francis, South Dakota State UniversityFollow
Alison D. O'Brien, Uniformed Services University of the Health SciencesFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

9-1-1995

Comments

Published in INFECTION AND IMMUNITY, Sept. 1995, p. 3739–3744. Copyright 1995, American Society for Microbiology. Used by permission.

Abstract

In a previous study, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7 with a deletion and insertion in the eaeA gene encoding intimin was used to establish that intimin is required for the organism to attach to and efface microvilli in the piglet intestine (M. S. Donnenberg, S. Tzipori, M. L. McKee, A. D. O’Brien, J. Alroy, and J. B. Kaper, J. Clin. Invest. 92:1418–1424, 1993). However, in the same investigation, a role for intimin in EHEC adherence to HEp-2 cells could not be definitively demonstrated. To analyze the basis for this discrepancy, we constructed an in-frame deletion of eaeA and compared the adherence capacity of this mutant with that of the wild-type strain in vitro and in vivo. We observed a direct correlation between the requisite for intimin in EHEC O157:H7 colonization of the gnotobiotic piglet intestine and adherence of the bacterium to HEp-2 cells. The in vitro-in vivo correlation lends credence to the use of the HEp-2 cell adherence model for further study of the intimin protein.