Comparison of Bacterial Adherence to Ciliated and Squamous Epithelial Cells Obtained from the Human Respiratory Tract^1–3

Abstract

Previous in vitro studies have suggested that bacterial adherence to buccal squamous epithelial cells may be a mechanism involved in postoperative colonization of the oropharynx. However, the relationship between bacterial binding to oral epithelial and ciliated respiratory cells is unknown. To investigate bacterial binding to other cells in the human respiratory tract, we measured adherence of Pseudomonas seruginosa to ciliated cells (from nose and trachea) and compared this to squamous cells (from buccal mucosa), Cell samples were collected from 16 noncolonized individuals undergoing either elective surgery or volunteer bronchoscopy. Adherence (mean +/- SEM) to tracheal cells (4.6 +/- 0.8 bacteria per cell) and to nasal cells (4.7 +/- 0.6 bacteria per cell) was similar. These values significantly (p less than 0.001) exceeded buccal cell adherence (0.9 +/- 0.2 bacteria per cell). Because cells from ciliated surfaces bind more bacteria than cells from squamous surfaces, bacterial adherence at these respiratory sites may involve different mechanisms. The enhanced bacterial attachment to ciliated cells may assume pathogenic importance when mucociliary function is impaired.

Moraxella (Branhamella) catarrhalis Adherence to Human Bronchial and Oropharyngeal Cells: The Role of Adherence in Lower Respiratory Tract Infections

“…The result was, in part, similar to that shown by Niederman et al (16,17). However, the B. catarrhalis binding to bronchial cells was similar in the patients with CPD and the controls.…”

“…In our preliminary experiment, using oropharyngeal cells of 3 lung cancer patients without CPD (non-smokers, mean age 62.7) and the four strains of B. catarrhalis, no elevated adher- In fact, we demonstrated elsewhere that the throats of CPD patients with frequent pulmonary infections were more frequently colonized by the bacteria than controls without infection (12). The viability of oropharyngeal cells in this experiment was nearly the same as in previous studies (10,16,17,27). The reduced viability of the cells probably resulted not only from the methods used to collect specimens but also from the rapid turnover of the epithelial surface of the upper respiratory tracts in humans.…”

“…Niederman et al (16,17) compared Pseudomonas adherence in buccal and ciliated cells. They demonstrated that Pseudomonas colonization of the tracheobronchial tree in patients after tracheostomy was not related to increased adherence of the bacteria to buccal cells, but was associated with greater binding of the bacteria to the patients' tracheal cells than in the controls.…”

Smoking and Smokeless Tobacco-Associated Human Buccal Cell Mutations and Their Association with Oral Cancer—A Review

“…Particularly noteworthy is that micronuclei meet many of the prerequisites of a good intermediate end point in clinical intervention trials (54). The predictive value of micronuclei has been shown using cultured cells exposed to carcinogens and chemopreventive agents and in experiments using human oral mucosa (55).…”

Mucoactive therapy in COPD

“…Other effects that were demonstrated include: 1) inhibition of epithelial thickening and secretory cell hyperplasia induced by cigarette smoke in rats [64]; 2) reduction of neutrophil and monocyte chemotaxis and oxidative burst responses in vitro [65,66]; 3) reductions of lysozyme and lactoferrin concentrations in smokers [67]; 4) reduction in the activation and number of neutrophils and macrophages in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in smokers [68,69]; and 5) inhibition of the adherence of bacteria to ciliated epithelial cells in vitro [70][71][72].…”