Campylobacter jejuni motility and invasion of Caco-2 cells

Abstract

We investigated the influence of motility on Campylobacter jejuni binding and invasion of Caco-2 cells. C. jejuni was motile in soft agar at basic (pH 8.5) and neutral pH values representative of the intestinal environment. However, C. jejuni was immobilized at pH 5.0. The inability of C. jejuni to swarm on soft agar at pH 5.0 was not related to flagellar depolymerization or loss of viability. In tissue culture medium, C. jejuni displayed typical periods of straight swimming punctuated by tumbling behavior. This behavior was altered when the viscosity of the medium was adjusted to mimic the viscosity of intestinal mucus. C. jejuni showed longer periods of straight swimming with significantly increased velocity followed by pauses instead of tumbles. The binding and invasion of C. jejuni in Caco-2 cells also increased significantly in high-viscosity growth medium. We speculate that the swimming behavior of C. jejuni in a viscous environment may be an important factor in the interaction of these organisms with host epithelial cells. The pH, which affects C. jejuni motility, may also influence the tropism of these organisms.

Composition and diversity of mucosa‐associated microbiota along the entire length of the pig gastrointestinal tract; dietary influences

“…Here, we observed that the mucosal layer of the caecum is enriched with the microaerophilic families Campylobacteraceae and Helicobacteraceae (Kelly, 2001), in comparison to the caecal lumen where they are almost completely absent. Both these groups are adept at survival within the outer mucus layer, owing to their microaerophilic metabolism, effective flagella-propelled motility in a viscous environment (Szymanski et al, 1995;Kelly, 2001;Beeby, 2015) and mucin-colonising abilities (Mahdavi et al, 2002;Naughton et al, 2013).…”

A major role for intestinal epithelial nucleotide oligomerization domain 1 (NOD1) in eliciting host bactericidal immune responses to Campylobacter jejuni

“…Intestinal epithelial NOD1 and NOD2 gene expression is not modulated in response to C. jejuni Bacterial adherence to and subsequent invasion of the IEC is a well established early event in C. jejunimediated disease pathogenesis (Konkel and Joens, 1989;Szymanski et al, 1995;Monteville et al, 2003).…”

Signal transduction in Campylobacter jejuni-induced cytokine production

“…The importance of motility in C. jejuni pathogenesis is well documented. For example, several reports have shown that C. jejuni strains defective in motility have a significant defect in their ability to attach and invade cultured intestinal epithelial cells (Wassenaar et al ., 1991;Grant et al ., 1993;Yao et al ., 1994;Szymanski et al ., 1995) as well as colonize the intestine of newborn chicks (Wassenaar et al ., 1993;Hendrixson and DiRita, 2004). In addition, non-motile strains of C. jejuni have been shown to be impaired in their ability to stimulate IL-8 secretion in cultured epithelial cells (Hickey et al ., 1999).…”