Search results for "Molecular and Cellular Pathogenesis"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
The Cell Cycle-Specific Growth-Inhibitory Factor Produced by Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans Is a Cytolethal Distending Toxin
1998
ABSTRACT Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans has been shown to produce a soluble cytotoxic factor(s) distinct from leukotoxin. We have identified in A. actinomycetemcomitans Y4 a cluster of genes encoding a cytolethal distending toxin (CDT). This new member of the CDT family is similar to the CDT produced by Haemophilus ducreyi . The CDT from A. actinomycetemcomitans was produced in Escherichia coli and was able to induce cell distension, growth arrest in G 2 /M phase, nucleus swelling, and chromatin fragmentation in HeLa cells. The three proteins, CDTA, -B and -C, encoded by the cdt locus were all required for toxin activity. Antiserum raised against recombinant CDTC completely inhibited …
Role of tir and intimin in the virulence of rabbit enteropathogenic Escherichia coli serotype O103:H2.
2000
ABSTRACT Attaching and effacing (A/E) rabbit enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (REPEC) strains belonging to serogroup O103 are an important cause of diarrhea in weaned rabbits. Like human EPEC strains, they possess the locus of enterocyte effacement clustering the genes involved in the formation of the A/E lesions. In addition, pathogenic REPEC O103 strains produce an Esp-dependent but Eae (intimin)-independent alteration of the host cell cytoskeleton characterized by the formation of focal adhesion complexes and the reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton into bundles of stress fibers. To investigate the role of intimin and its translocated coreceptor (Tir) in the pathogenicity of REPEC, …
Cytotoxic Action of Serratia marcescens Hemolysin on Human Epithelial Cells
1999
ABSTRACT Incubation of human epithelial cells with nanomolar concentrations of chromatographically purified Serratia marcescens hemolysin (ShlA) caused irreversible vacuolation and subsequent lysis of the cells. Vacuolation differed from vacuole formation by Helicobacter pylori VacA. Sublytic doses of ShlA led to a reversible depletion of intracellular ATP. Restoration to the initial ATP level was presumably due to the repair of the toxin damage and was inhibited by cycloheximide. Pores formed in epithelial cells and fibroblasts without disruption of the plasma membrane, and the pores appeared to be considerably smaller than those observed in artificial lipid membranes and in erythrocytes a…